Hester of Golden Bells
by Bathsheba Blythe
Summary: In the summer of 1936 Hester Ford, daughter of Rilla and Ken, along with her mother and her siblings, is moving back to the House of Dreams for the following year during which her father is in Europe on a business trip. What will this new adventure bring to her? Friends, joy, tears, sadness or the combination of those? Please read and review.
1. Bend In The Road

**_Chapter I_**

"Are we almost there, mother?" Gilbert, commonly known as Gilly or Gil, asked his mother as he looked outside the train window with an annoyed but yet excited look in his gray eyes.

Rilla looked away from the window and turned her head to her oldest child with a grin crossing her face "We're definitely near, dear." she said to him sweetly and she looked outside the window again "I can't believe that we haven't visited Glen in almost six months time!" she shook her head with disbelief.

Gilly raised his eyebrows and brushed his hands through his black curls, a soft smile appearing on his pink lips "I can't wait to go fishing with Marshall again." he added with an impish look in his eyes.

"And tease all the girls again, isn't that right, Gilly?" Rilla asked her son and chuckled when she saw how a smirk appeared on his frecled face "You are just like your father, that's all I can tell you darling."

"I know." Gilly replied as a boy who heard that statement millions of times before and knew he would hear it again and again later as well.

"You could sometimes stop teasing the girls, Gil." a quiet Selwyn Ford spoke up from the corner as he lifted up his head full of auburn curls from the book called "Midsummer Night's Dream" which he was reading during the journey.

Gilly laughed softly and hit his younger brother playfully in the arm "But it's fun, Wyn!" he said "I know that you think it's not _appropriate_ but I don't care." he smiled again and his mother laughed quietly.

"At least Selwyn can act like a real gentleman." she said as she squeezed her youngest son's hand while looking kindly into his gray eyes.

"Besides," Gilly continued as he sat down next to a twelve year old girl and put his arm around her shoulders "-I never did and I never _will_ tease my little sister." he grinned at the black-haired girl who was studying the family picture she held in her hand.

Hester looked up from the black-and-white piece of paper she held and smiled back at her big brother "I know you won't." she replied gently "Every boy, however mean he is, has a part of is heart that belongs to a gentleman."

Rilla smiled at her only daughter who reminded her very much of her own bosom friend named Una Meredith "And I think that you're right, sweetheart." she said to her lovingly "Selwyn?" she suddenly turned to her middle child again "Didn't you read this book three times already?" she asked him.

Selwyn smiled lightly at his mother and looked at the cover of his precious book "Yes, but the book is never too old, nor too young to be read once again." he answered.

"A poet and a lady-musician as my siblings." Gilly concluded with a sigh "What will _I_ do with my life while having siblings so accomplished and so… intelligent like those two?" he asked and made his family chuckle together.

"Don't call me a musician, Gil." Hester said modestly "Just because I can play the cello, and a violin and a _little_ bit of piano doesn't make me a real musician." she said and looked at the picture she held in her hands again.

Gilly sighed and so did his mother _and_ his brother "If this doesn't make a musician, I don't know what does, Hes." he said while shaking his head full of black curls.

"I can't wait to hear your own composed pieces being played by an orchestra." Selwyn touched his sister's hand tenderly, a small very Selwyn-like smile appeared in the corner of his lips.

Hester smiled back at him, her cheeks flushing with red but a little bit of pride and hope filling her hazel eyes " _If_ it will ever become true, I can't wait either." she said.

"And I'm sure it will, darling." Rilla squeezed her daughter's small hand and then looked out of the window again "Oh, _children_!" she exclaimed and put her hands on her cheeks "We are almost there!"

Gilly whooped and put his arms around Sewlyn's and Hester's shoulders "Finally!" he sighed contentedly "I _can't_ wait to go fishing." he repeated his thought.

Selwyn smiled to himelf as he looked out of the window "I can't wait to go to the Rainbow Valley and read poetry while listening to the birdsong." his eyes turning dreamy.

Only Hester Ford sat silent, leaning her head against her oldest brother's shoulder and feeling the soft touch of her mother's hand covering her own. She wasn't very excited for this trip, she wanted to stay at their home in Toronto, at Golden Bells. How much she would rather prefer her father to have a different job to this one! _Why_ did his boss at "Times" have to suggest to him the idea of a business trip to Eurpoe, all the way across the ocean to a different world and away from his home and his family? She felt her eyes getting teary and then blinked them off.

Hester loved the House of Dreams, how could she not love it? All the history built within those few walls, the beautiful garden, the lighthouse, the red roads… It was all wonderful and Hester and her brothers knew Four Winds and Glen very well, they were visitors many times in the past. But _this_ was different.

This time, they were going to move there for at least a year, they had to go to school there, make new friends… Hester gulped. She wasn't very good in making new friends. At her school in Toronto, she had a few girl-friends, but they were never those kind of friends she always dreamed about, the _bosom_ friends of which her grandmother Anne was always referring to while talking about friendship. Hester knew her cousins but she didn't know them _exactly_. She always felt a little like an 'outsider' while staying in the House of Dreams for a few weeks during summer or during Christmas.

Rilla squeezed Hester's hand and when the girl turned her head and looked into her mother's eyes, the same shade as her own, some of those doubts and fears vanished from her soul. Oh, mother always knew what to say, even through the eyes, without saying a single word.

The train arrived at the old Glen St Mary's station and when Hester, her siblings and their mother took their suitcases (one of which was the enormous cello and a smaller violin cases) in their hands, they all stepped on the station, not knowing that that was one of those steps of their life which would change the course of their lives forever. But they wouldn't realise it until several years to come afterwards.

The station was steamed up, Hester coughed and tried her hardest to see her grandparents, her aunts, uncles or cousins but she didn't see them and it was as if she was trying to look through the clouds in order to find angels playing on their puffy shapes.

But then… "We're over here, Fords!" at least a dozen voices filled the air around them and magically Hester spotted the waving crowd of Blythes and Merediths, looking at them with smiling eyes and laughing lips.

Hester didn't even realise when she was kissed by her grandfather Gilbert on the cheek, how her grandmother Anne hugged her and whispered into her ear that she looked exactly like she always wanted to look like as a little girl, or how her mother squeezed her hand reassuringly, causing Hester to smile just a little bit.

Then she looked around at each of her cousin's faces whom she hadn't seen since Christmas last year. There were children of her aunt Faith and uncle Jem: Walter, the tall boy of fourteen years of age with a personality and looks of his father; his younger sister who was just a year older than Hester, Cecilia, whom everyone called Lily instead and who had indeed a perfect copy of her mother's gentle and beautiful face but had her father's red hair. She was smiling at Hester as Lily was always the one who wanted to take care of everyone and when she saw her cousin almost shaking from all the emotions inside her, all she was waiting for was to give her a tight hug as soon as possible.

Then there was Lily's younger sister, in the same age as Hester, called Anne but who was commonly known as Marion because she had a hint of bravery in her timid hazel eyes. Marion's face was round, nothing like her parents's faces, and John Meredith was always eager to say that she had a face of his first wife, Cecilia. Marion had a dryad's beauty about her face, such round and plump little face with just a few tiny perfect frecles which Hester always envied each of her cousins of possessing. Marion was holding her older brother's hand but watched her newly arrived cousins with interest in her eyes and she gave Hester the most welcoming tiny smile that only kindred spirits recognise. Somehow, Hester felt a little bit better because of it.

Then there was the brood of aunt Nan and uncle Jerry: the oldest of the whole group Josephine, simply called Jo, who was certainly the most beautiful girl in Glen St Mary with her brown curls, brown matching eyes and this glamorous small mole resting on her rosy cheek. But Jo _was_ proud and that was something that was giving her some of the unvisible wrinkles on her face. Jo looked rather bored but he eyebrows raised when she saw Gilly's handsome face and his winking eye blinking at her.

Jo's younger brother, John, already came up to Selwyn to give him a brotherly hug. They were always very close friends whether they were seeing each other in person or just writing letters. John was a perfect image of his father and his personality too. He also loved reading and that was why he and Selwyn were always so close.

Eventually there was Shirley, his blonde-haired sweet wife Emma and their children. A ten year old funny boy Will who was actually called Matthew but preferred his nickname instead, was winking at Hester with a silly smile on his face. Will looked just like his grandfather Gilbert when he was his age, and he inherited his cheekiness too. Hester managed to smile back at him.

Behind Will was a darling little girl of just seven years of age, with looks of an elf. Susan was a perfect image of her mother as she had blue eyes, blonde hair and fine tiny frecles on her nose. Then in the arms of Shirley was the youngest of the clan, little two year old Delia with bright brown eyes and sweet blonde curls on her head. She was smiling from ear to ear while watching the Fords hugging and kissing everyone else from their family, along with Delia's tiny chubby hands.

Next to Emma stood her bosom friend Una Meredith, looking as beautiful as she always had been. Una lived with her parents at the Manse but worked in her own orphanage she opened eight years earlier, in the Upper Glen. Hester always loved her "auntie" Una as she visited the Ford family in Toronto most often, having no children of her own and therefore having a lot more opportunities to visit her friends. Una squeezed Hester and whispered into her ear tenderly: "My darling girl, I can't wait to hear the sound of your cello again." and Hester smiled at her softly and kissed Una's cheek in return.

"Oh, I'm so glad to have you here, my darlings!" Grandmother Anne exclaimed as she put her gentle hand on Hester's and Selwyn's shoulders "Glen missed you incredibly." she looked at Rilla with a joyful smile covering her face.

Rilla kissed her mother's cheek gently "Oh, Mother, and I missed it too." she said and then took Hester's hand in hers "Hester, darling, are you alright?" she asked her worriedly, seeing Hester's pale cheeks.

The girl looked in her mother's eyes with a frightful look in her own but she grinned at her bravely "Yes, Mummy, I am." she said quietly but Rilla knew her daughter too well not to see and know that it was clearly a lie.

"Come along then, dears." Faith said eagerly as she put her arm around Rilla's shoulders "Let's all talk while having a few cups of tea and much more cookies at the old Ingleside." she said cheerfully but Rilla smiled at her and shook her head.

"I'm sorry, everyone." she said "But I think we should first get unpacked and get a little time to refresh ourselves first of all." Rilla squeezed Hester's hand and looked apologetically at the others around her.

Everyone gave a small sigh of disappointment but that was when Gilbert came at the front and placed his arms around his namesake and Selwyn "Of course you do." he said merrily "Now that you are here and you will stay for longer than usual, we can spare another two hours or more until we see each other for a cup od tea."

Rilla kissed her father's cheeks and took her children and all of their suitcases, and eventually they all came into Jem's car who offered them a lift to the old House of Dreams. Hester sat at the back seat with her siblings and looked outside the window with a dreamy look on her face. Once the shyness of hers disappeared with the crowd consisting of her family members, she came back to her old self within moments.

Oh, how beautiful Four Winds was! She almost forgot… There were trees everywhere, so green and bright, the red sandy roads… There it was, the famous Lighthouse! And the ocean… Hester always wanted to learn how to swim, and when she saw those vast and azure waves spreading in front of her eyes, she thought that she didn't want to do anything else on that day _but_ to learn how to swim.

Suddenly… "We're here everyone!" Rilla and Jem said in unison, both siblings equally excited.

Gilly clasped his hands together and whooped again, Selwyn smiled with joy and put his arm around Hester's shoulders and Hester's eyes started to laugh too. Even though Hester considered her home to be Golden Bells in Toronto, she could never not call the House of Dreams her home too, after all both she and her siblings were all born there. Although the House of Dreams was a bit smaller and definitely much older than Golden Bells, and Hester lived there only the first two years of her life, there was something about that house which made Hester to think that after all she _was_ in front of her home.

"Thank you, Jem." Rilla kissed her older brother on the cheek as he helped her with the suitcases.

"No problem, sister." he winked at her and then patted Selwyn's hair "I'll see you all in the evening, right?"

"If not my mother and siblings, _I_ will certainly come uncle Jem." Gilly said and smiled at his uncle slyly.

Jem chuckled seeing his own self in Gilly's young face "Sure you will, Gilly." he said and came back to his car and after waving for a while, the Fords couldn't see his car anymore and turned to each other.

"Are we going inside then?" Selwyn asked excitedly.

"Yes, let's go, children o'mine." Rilla said just as eagerly and crossed the doorstep of the House of Dreams, the very doorstep she once crossed as a new bride.

Rilla came inside first, Gilly followed her, Selwyn slipped right after and Hester after drawing a deep breath stepped inside as well. "It's so…" she whispered, looking around as if it was her first time at the House of Dreams "-unchanged." she said and a small grin grew at the corner of her lip.

Rilla huged her daughter tightly and sighed with happiness of her own "It never does." she agreed "I can't believe that my own mother and father lived here so long ago, and your father's grandparents too." she looked around as if she could see the laughing young people in the room they were all standing in.

Hester looked around the room. Nothing changed, and it seemed to her as if all the furniture, even though it was now modern was always standing in that very room from the beginning of time. She smiled at Rilla "I can." she said briskly.

Rilla gave a sigh of relief, seeing that the familiar sparkle appeared in her daughter's eyes once more. She didn't say a word and the mother and daughter shared their knowing glances. Rilla then clasped her hands together and looked at Hester's brothers "Boys and Hester, should I prepare something small to eat then? Before we go off to your grandparents' house of course." she asked them all cheerfully.

Gilly and Selwyn nodded in unision and Rilla chuckled when she disappeared into the kitchen. Hester sat down on the sofa next to Selwyn and put a strand of her coal-black hair behind her ear. She sighed softly, thinking about what shall await her in this new adventure called moving back to the House of Dreams. Selwyn put his protective arm around her shoulders as he could hear and he could see how deep in her thoughts his little sister was. "Hester," he said "-you musn't be so pessimistic about all this."

Before Hester looked into his eyes, Gilly hopped on the sofa, next to Hester, and put his arm around her shoulders too "Come on there, sis." he said "You're strong and I'm sure you'll be just fine."

Hester grinned at them both lightly "I hope so." she whispered.

Gilly pinched her delicately on her arm "Don't hope, _believe_ in it, Hes." he said again, a smile crossing his lips "Besides you'll always have us." he pointed at himself and Selwyn.

Selwyn smiled at Gil and then back at Hester. The two of them could converse without saying a word and so Hester smiled knowingly back at him and then at Gil "Thank you, brothers o'mine." she said more merrily.

"And if anyone will ever tease you or hurt you in _any_ way…" Gil started and then shook his fist in the air and Hester gasped, her eyes horrified.

"Oh, Gil, _no_!" she exclaimed "You musn't get into any fight because of me." she said seriously.

Gil waved his hand carelessly and winked at her "Sure I will, if it will be necessary." he said cheekily.

Selwyn hid a shadow of a smile appearing in the corner of his lips and looked at his brother "And so would I. Even if it's so hard to believe." he said proudly.

Hester chuckled quietly and her brothers followed her actions "Only when it's necessary though." she added quickly "Promise me."

"We promise." Gil and Selwyn vowed.

"Good." she replied, satisfied and grateful for her brothers "And thank you, my friends." she snuggled against them "I don't think anyone in the world has as good brothers as I do."

"Probably not." Gil whispered into her ear "We're the best, aren't we, Wyn?" he asked his younger sibling and Selwyn eagerly nodded.

"And it's all because _you_ are our sister." Selwyn added with a smile reserved only for Hester and she gave each of her brothers a quick kiss on the cheek.

"I suppose that this new life won't be as scary as I imagined it would be." she said to them and in that moment she truly believed it, although what she didn't know was that there was still a lot more, good and bad, awaiting her at the bend of the road.

* * *

 **So here it is, the first chapter of my new story. What did you think about it? Was it any good?** **All I can say is that this story is just starting so I know that this first chapter was not exactly exciting but I hope I got you interested, only a little bit perhaps ;)**

 **New chapter will be posted soon (I hope) and all I can ask of you is to let me know what you think about this very first chapter! Until the next time then - Bathsheba Blythe**


	2. The Beginning

_**Chapter II**_

"Hester, I simply _adore_ your hair, can I play with it for a little while?" Lily asked her cousin eagerly, her own red curls flying in the air.

Hester nodded quickly and grinned shyly at Lily "Of course, you can." she replied and Lily squeaked and went behind Hester's back starting to braid Hester's coal-black hair.

Hester, Gilly, Selwyn and their mother Rilla went to Ingleside at the afternoon. Their whole family was there, apart from Di and her husband and children of course as she was located at Green Gables in Avonlea. But the rest of Hester's family was sitting all together in the garden of the old good Ingleside, drinking tea and coffee and eating cakes and cookies made from the recipes of Susan Baker.

Each of the cousins divided into groups, of course. Gilly went fishing for a while but came back to Ingleside with Mary Vance's or rather _Mrs Miller Douglas_ 's oldest child, Marshall, the tall boy with brown curls and green eyes sparkling in the same way as Gil's eyes always were. Marshall and Gil were teaching each other their new dance moves, or rather Gilly was teaching them to Marshall. Hester looked at them with funny look in her eyes as she loved watching other people dance, it was as if they were in a completely different world, world of music, a world which Hester knew very well herself.

Then it was Selwyn who joined his old "Glen group" in which were his cousins Walt and John. The "Three Musketeers" sat together on the blanket and talked and laughed over some silly jokes of theirs. Selwyn was the quietest of the group, and in times like those ones, everyone who once knew Private Walter Blythe, couldn't help but see Walter in Selwyn. Not in the looks of course, Selwyn had auburn hair and his face was of a different shape, but both Selwyn and Walter shared this special dreamy look _and_ their gray eyes. Whenever grandmother Anne looked at him, she would smile longingly at him and then think of a new poem or a new book of poetry she could discuss with Selwyn when Walt and John would go and take care of the food later.

Then there was the small group consisting of Will and his two friends from school, Flynn and Jeremy. All of those boys played in their own invented game which didn't make any sense to all of those who just watched them from the distance but nobody also dared to distract them. It was funny how very unlike in personality was Shirley's son to his own personality. Will was loud and funny and always full of ideas and openness. Shirley always smiled while looking at him because Will had the personality of his mother, Emma, instead.

Susan was playing with her baby-sister Delia with their doll house and both looked like perfect angels at that moment, although Delia had this dangerous little sparkle in her two years old eyes.

Jo Meredith was walking up and down the garden with her best-friend Bernadette. Two girls looked like movie-stars, with their shoulder-length curled brown hair and stylish dresses, _and_ matching gloves. Jo was observing Hester from time to time and no, Hester didn't _quite_ like Jo and it really bothered her kind soul because she did not like not to like other people, especially her own family members. But there was just something about Jo's eyes that could tell Hester she regarded her own self as the Queen of the universe, even if she didn't say it outloud.

Eventually, it was Hester's group. Hester was circled by red-headed and eager to meet her Lily, Lily's younger sister, quiet but lovely Marion and Marshall's younger sister called Vance. Vance was in Hester's age, and she had the loveliest blonde hair which she inherited from her mother and a face of a pure angel. She had sweet green eyes of her father and she always had a furrowed brow whenver she was bending her head in order to read a book lying in her lap, just like she was doing now.

Vance didn't quite belong to their group, Hester thought. It was as if she was just sitting in the corner and reading one book after the other without even making an eye-contact with any of the girls surrounding her. Hester wanted to talk to her, but was altogether too shy and too over-occupied with her own thoughts and worries over whether or not her two cousins whom she hasn't seen in half a year's time, will or will not be her kindred spirits after all.

"How was the journey by the train, Hester?" Lily asked her excitedly again, still braiding her hair "Oh, how I envy you! I love travelling by train but the only times I have been on a train was when we were all travelling to your house in Toronto for Christmas all those three years ago." she said wistfully.

Hester grinned lightly "I do love travelling by train." she said "It's so lovely to look out of the window and witness the world passing you so fast."

"That's exactly what I love about travelling by train!" Lily exclaimed again and gave Hester a quick peck on the cheek "Oh, I'm so sure you and I will get along more than fine." she said decidedly, a wide smile spreading on her face.

Lily finished Hester's braid and sat down between her and her sister Marion "I really hope so, Lily." Hester said, her lips forming into a sweet smile.

Lily took her hand in hers and then looked in her eyes with certainty "We _already_ are kindred spirits, I'm telling you, Hester Ford." she chuckled "And oh, I can't wait until you will play your cello or a violin for all of us!" she squeezed her hands excitedly.

Hester smiled at her timidly, crimson reaching her cheeks "Oh, I'm not sure when exactly…" she began.

"Oh, but you must!" Lily insisted "Not today of course but maybe tomorrow or the day after? What do you say?" she asked her, still clinging onto her hand.

Hester thought for a moment and then opened her mouth "I will see, Lily, is that alright?" she said slowly "You know, I still have to… get used to all of this." she added, her voice trembling a bit.

"You'll be fine with us, Hester." Marion spoke up suddenly, her small hand covering her cousin's and her angelic voice filling Hester's ears "Don't worry, we won't let you down." she smiled at her, a smile which Hester fell in love with instantly.

And just like that, Hester felt that this small ball of worries ricocheting inside her chest slowly but evidently started to disappear like the morning fog. Hester smiled back at Marion and Marion grinned at Hester lightly, she didn't have any need for Hester to say anything, she knew what her eyes told her and that was enough for kindred spirits to recognise each other.

"Dinner everyone!" Anne shouted out cheerfully out of the kitchen window and the whole group raced to the house. Hester was squished between Marshall and Jo and her face turned positively red when Marshall looked down at her and whispered: "Hi, _kid_." as if a _twelve_ year old girl was a "kid"! From this moment Hester knew that Marshall definitely was _not_ her kindred spirit and probably never shall be too. Jo glanced at her disapprovingly, and she held her nose high as if to show her young cousin that she _was_ older than her. But Hester decided to ignore both of them for as long as she didn't have to talk with either Jo or Marshall.

Hester forgot how it was to have a proper family dinner like that one. Of course it wasn't a very long time since she last saw her family, merely six months, but it seemed to her as if _ages_ had passed from the last meal they shared together at Ingleside. Everyone talked, shouted across the table, grabbed one plate then another, laughed, even sang some random notes from time to time. Hester didn't talk with anyone, she sat between Gilly and Walt, but she didn't feel awkward like she thought she would feel. She felt as if she really belonged there, in her family. Hester looked at her left, at her mother who talked eagerly with her auntie Una whom she always loved as they shared their timid personality. Hester's eyes saw not only her mother but the gift of imagination allowed Hester to also see her father sitting next to Rilla, joining in conversation with uncle Jem and grandpa Gilbert. A tall, unchangeable, loveable, black-haired, funny and loving Kenneth Ford. Hester's eyes got misty and she looked back at her plate again.

Suddenly, a hand reached for Hester's shoulder and she turned her head only to see her grandma Anne standing behind her with a soft and tender smile on her face "Dear, do you mind going with me for a walk across the Rainbow Valley? I would love to explore and look for some ancient fairies with you." she said to her charmingly.

Hester's lips formed into a cheerful smile and she put down her napkin on the table "Yes, I'd love to catch a glimpse of one or two today." she replied to her more quietly, thinking not to speak loud enough for anyone else to hear her, although nobody around her would hear her anyway.

Anne grinned at her granddaughter sweetly and took her small smooth hand into her own and the two of them came outside, with Rilla waving at her mother and daughter with joy in her eyes. "Hester, darling, I noticed that something really tearful troubled you at the dinner." Anne started tenderly when she and her granddaughter were out of sight and hearing of the Ingleside folk "Could you tell your grandma what it was?"

Hester sighed heavily, letting go of everything which was holding her chest tight "I miss dad," she said wistfully "-and I'm scared of new school and making new friends…" she started but Anne interrupted her seeing her eyes turning misty again.

"Darling girl," she said to her with a gentle smile "-everyone is afriad of things and situations like those ones. But believe me, you _will_ be fine, maybe you won't feel fine immediately and when you'll want to, but you will after some time." she said.

"You know, I always forget that you were adopted." Hester said suddenly and then grinned at Anne lightly "You were so very strong."

"I was." Anne replied, not proudly but assuringly "And so are you."

"How are you so sure, granny?" Hester asked.

"You know, you have something which reminds me of both of your parents, and this something definitely is determination, and a determination always follows strength." Anne said and winked at Hester.

Hester looked up in her grandmother's gray eyes and smiled gladly and a bit more joyfully "I know you're right and so I really hope that I will make you proud." she said.

Anne smoothed her rosy cheeks "Hester, you already _are_ making me proud." she said decidedly "You play _three_ instruments! And you are so much like me when I was younger, just in your own sweeter way and I'm so glad because you won't bore other people with your talking like I did." she chuckled a bit and so did Hester.

"I don't think you could ever bore anyone with your talking, grandma." Hester said "Not _ever_."

Anne giggled like a girl and took Hester's hand in hers "You should have said it to most of the people I met when I was your age." she said with a grin "But Hester, trust your grandma and believe her when she says that this special time while you'll be away from your home in Toronto will definitely bring you wonderful memories."

Hester looked up in Anne's eyes and smiled at her again, more readily "Thank you, granny. I shall believe you then." she said and the two of them continued talking with each other for the rest of the evening, like two bosom friends after a long time of not seeing each other.

* * *

"Who composed this, Hester?" Marion asked quietly her newly made friend while lying on Hester's bed next to her older sister Lily.

A week passed since Hester along with her brothers and her mother moved back into the House of Dreams. She started to get used to being in this different room which somehow did seem different even though she had spent many nights in there before. She liked going to the shore with Selwyn or watching how Gilly practised his dance movements at the verandah and how mother cooked in the kitchen while she sang. Hester didn't want to meet up with Lily, Marion and Vance very soon after their last meeting so that day was the first day she decided to actually invite them over to her house as Hester really needed some time spent alone to get used to the new walls surrounding her.

It's not that Hester didn't like Lily, Marion or Vance, quite contrary and that was why she was scared to invite them over as she felt that somehow it wasn't right that everything seemed to be going so perfectly smoothly, with her making friends so quickly and effortlessly. She was partially right, she would later discover that this whole new adventure wouldn't be all perfect and smooth but on that day she didn't know it yet and she was really happy that both of her cousins, Marion and Lily could make it. Vance stayed at her home as she wanted to help her mother with cooking.

"It's Bach." Hester smiled cheerfully, showing off her white teeth while sitting next to Lily and Marion "I love his compositions for cello. It was this one, Cello Suite No. 1 Prelude it's called, which made me fall in love with the sound of a cello." she looked over to the graceful instrument lying on the floor beside them.

Marion followed Hester's gaze and smiled dreamily while Lily squeezed Hester's hand excitedly "I do hope you will give us a concert soon." she said to her with a funny raised brow.

"I will, I promise." Hester said truthfully "Just give me a bit more time to get used to everything. I am…" she looked down, embarrassed "-a little bit shy to give a concert so soon."

Lily kissed Hester's cheek "Don't worry, I will only ask you once a week." she said and the girls around her chuckled.

"Oh, I do love this record." Marion sighed softly "It's so beautiful."

Hester grinned at her, her eyes twinkling "Yes, it's not just beautiful though, it's simply _wonderful_." she said in her excited tone a tone in which she was always talking whenever she talked about her cello or music in general "I only wish that one day I will be able to compose a song as perfect as this one." she embraced her legs and put her forehead on the top of her knees.

"I think you will." Lily said "You just have to start composing." she winked at her, leaned back and fell into her own small world of dreams while the sound of a cello filled the room around her.

In years to come, Hester would thank Lily for that small advice she gave her on that day and she would thank her when she would give a cello or a violin concert to the whole family. But she didn't know it yet, she wouldn't know for another ten more years, but in that moment when she listened to Bach's composition and her eyes were closed, her soul started to grow quicker than she ever thought it would.


	3. School And The Wind

_**Chapter III**_

The summer of 1936 was a summer which Hester would remember only as a blur. Everything was happening so quickly, days were racing each other, each night was faster than the other, Hester was constantly occupied meeting with Lily, Marion and occasionally with Vance too, or she was playing her cello, her violin and she practised her piano next to her "auntie" Una.

Hester really enjoyed that summer, and actually thought it was a much better summer than the one before when she stayed at her home in Golden Bells in Toronto as her parents were forced, _again_ , to stay at home as Ken was needed at his office. Hester knew the reason why she thought that that particular summer was better than the last one and that was because she actually had _friends_ to spend a summer with.

She did have one or two girl-friends at her school in Toronto, but they were more friends with each other than with Hester who always felt like a third wheel to their small group. But she actually didn't mind so much, she said to her father once that she was even used to it and sometimes preferred it as she enjoyed looking outside the window and daydreaming. But after that summer she felt that she _did_ want to have real loving friends, kindred spirits, just like Lily and Marion became to be for her. But Hester still wasn't sure about Vance, the two of them hardly spoke to each other and Hester got very curious about the Mary Vance's youngest child, and she would get the chance to know her soul soon enough too.

During the summer Hester not only got used to living in Four Winds, she also got used to her family routines like Sunday dinners at Ingleside and her walks with grandma Anne down the Rainbow Valley and her walks with her mother and Selwyn along the shore every evening.

Hester liked living in the big city, she really did, she always thought that the idea of having so many people around was really lovely even if you didn't know them. But she much preferred Four Winds, she decided one evening in August, the sound of the sea in the air, red roads, birds singing from each corner of the garden… It was just a matter of time when she would see a fairy or a dryad following one another in the Rainbow Valley, Selwyn whispered into her ear once.

That summer was also when Hester, Selwyn and Gilly really started to know their family. Gilly of course was the best friend of Marshall Douglas and the two of them were always going fishing, Selwyn was always in his group of three with Walt and John talking about books and music, Hester spent most of her time with Lily and Marion but she also spent many hours talking with each of her other cousins, even Jo herself was willing to listen to her records of Vivaldi when her parents, Nan and Jerry, visited House of Dreams one day although she _did_ roll her eyes, hurt Hester thought to herself.

Cornelia Douglas made her appearance too, and although she wasn't friends with any of the Blythe, Meredith or Ford girls, she was a one special friend of Walt who would always find a spare moment to walk with her either to the shore or walk her home from the post office. She really was a lovely girl, with her mother's blonde hair and her father's green eyes, she was more lively and more talkative than her sister, yet definitely less "wicked" than her older brother. But her eyes were turning so very lovelier when Walt was offering his arm while walking her home… Hester smiled whenever she saw them, and her heart beat faster at the thought that she too one day could be taking an arm of a young handsome man who could cause her eyes to turn _just_ like that.

"It's a big day tomorrow." Lily said to Hester when the two of them, along wth Marion of course, sat on the rocks observing the last sunset of August together "Are you scared?" she asked her kindly.

Hester looked in Lily's bright eyes and grinned at her weakly "Yes, a little." she replied quietly "I'm this kind of person who will always be afraid of beginnings but I will go through it somehow. With your help of course." she squeezed both Lily's and Marion's hands and they squeezed hers back, sharing their smiles with their cousin.

"Of course we're help you, _if_ you'll need our help." Lily added merrily.

"I'm sure you'll like our school." Marion said lightly.

"I do hope so." Hester replied lightly.

Lily nudged her at the side and made Hester to smile at her again. Lily grinned with satisfaction "Say, Hester, did you eventually find your new music teacher?" she asked suddenly.

"Oh, yes." Hester's eyes brightened up "I'm _really_ happy because of that. Our first lesson will be next week. Mrs Daniels plays the cello, violin, piano _and_ a flute!" she shook her head with astonishment and so did the girls around her "Mother said that she was very lovely when they both met for a coffee."

"I'm so excited for you, Hes." Lily said joyfully and then turned her head towards the horizon and sighed contentedly "Look girls and tell me how beautiful this sunset is?" she questioned her companions.

"I really believe that the best things in life are free." Hester whispered and the three girls laughed together.

"I wish I could watch sunsets and sunrises all my life." Marion added dreamily.

"I wish that was a career option." Lily said with a funny smile on her face "A sunseter and a sunriser." she giggled and so did her friends.

But as it always was, is and will be, the sunset came to an end and it was time for Lily and her sister Marion to go back home and leave Hester for the night which would be one of the most stressful nights of her life, a sleepless night for sure. Hester spent that night with her mother sleeping next to her in her bed, with a quiet sound of her record of Elgar's playing in the backgorund and somehow, Hester thought that even though she was frightfully scared, she really enjoyed that one sleepless night with the sound of orchestra in the air and her mother's arms tightening around her shoulders.

* * *

"Oh, is _that_ this new addition to our class?"

"Yes, it's the _royal_ Hester Ford. She belongs to the Blythes and Merediths of course."

"Ah, _sure_ she does, and she's from Toronto, a big city, ain't she?"

"Yes, you can see it all over her face. See how she puts her nose up high?"

"I do see it, does she think she's so better than us?"

No, Hester didn't think that at all. She was sitting in the front row, before the teacher's desk with Vance sitting right beside her. Her hair was put in a thick braid, she was wearing her nicest pink dress, her cheeks were flushed and matched her dress perfectly, and eventually her eyes really _were_ turning quite teary.

She forbid her own self not to cry so she didn't but she couldn't help the feeling that she wasn't welcome in her new school. Everyone was looking at her, was talking and whispering about this "new girl from Toronto, from the big city", as if she was a royal princess who behaved as if no-one else mattered in the world but her.

Hester tried her best to focus on how Mrs Grayson was expalaining to the class this new mathematical formula, but she failed as she could hear those two girls constantly whispering to themselves. If only Lily was there with her! But Lily was a year older and was in a different class of course. And Hester didn't blame, neither Marion nor Vance for not saying anything to those girls, if she Hester Ford couldn't do it herself, she would never blame others for not doing it for her.

The lesson ended and Hester started to pack her books, like everyone else. Suddenly, Vance turned her blonde head and her kind eyes met Hester's own. "Don't think about them, Hester." she whispered to her.

Hester grinned weakly at Vance "I'll try." she whispered back.

"They're not worth you thinking about them even for a second." she added before the two of them were joined by Marion and all of them headed out for a lunch break.

Hester thought about what Vance have said to her and she decided that the girl who has never spoken directly to her before that day was right and that she truly didn't have to think about what anyone else was saying about her, after all she _had_ friends right by her side. "I'm sorry, Hester, that I didn't say anything to those rude girls." Marion clung to Hester's arm and her own eyes got watery.

Hester kissed her cousin's cheeks and smiled at her kindly "Don't be sorry dear Marion, I am truly fine, and I wouldn't want you to stand up for me anyway." she replied and looked gratefully at Vance whose cheeks dimpled.

"Hester!" Lily shouted out joyfully while running to her group of friends and waving her long hands towards them "Are you alright?" she asked her caringly when she reached them.

Hester smiled lightly at her friend "I think so." she answered plainly.

"What do you mean?" Lily asked her back, looking around at each of the other children's faces with her sparkling eyes but before she could say anything a tall handsome boy tapped Hester on the shoulder.

"Hey there, sis." Gilly said cheerfully "How is it going?" he asked her.

Suddenly all of them heard those two girls talking loudly, just because they wanted all the Blythes, Merediths and Fords to hear them. "Hester Ford is just _so_ ugly." a girl who would never be able to call herself beautiful, stage-whispered to her best friend standing next to her "And did you see her eyes? They are so _big_!"

"But don't forget that she will _never_ notice it because she's from To-ron- _to_." the best-firend of the mentioned girl said and they both giggled with naivety in their young voices.

Hester's cheeks turned positively red and her eyes turned teary once more. Lily put her protective arms around her and before she could say or do anything else, Gilly clenched his fists and came for the rescue of his sister's good name. When the two girls found themselves standing in front of the tall handsome and brave Gilbert Ford, who was _four_ years older than them, they both gulped and their cheeks turned pale.

"Now _what_ were you two saying about my sister, huh?" he asked them wth annoyance in his voice, crossing his arms "Let me tell you something, Hester Ford has more intelligence and looks than both of you put together. So will you please shut your silly mouths and start worrying more about school than my sister who does _not_ need anyone to worry for her, in contrast to _you_ of course." he finished with his lips surrounded by the line of pride.

The two girls nodded and hurriedly ran back to their classroom. Gilly turned around to face Hester, Lily, Marion and Vance with a smirk crossing his face and Hester ran to him happily with her arms wide open. "Oh, Gil!" she exclaimed joyfully "You are my hero for life!" she kissed his cheeks softly and Gil straightened his back.

"And I shall be that for you, dearest sis." he replied and suddenly waved to someone behind Hester. All of the girls turned around just to see Marshall waving back at Gilly and mouthing to him to hurry up "I must go now but don't let anyone make you feel bad, Hes." he squeezed her hand and ran to Marshall waiting for him.

Hester turned around to Lily, Marion and Vance with a radiant face "Isn't it good to have such a wonderful brother?" she asked them.

"I was almost afraid that he would _beat_ those girls up!" Lily chuckled when she put Hester into a warm hug again.

Marion and Vance gasped in unison "Lily, I would never even _think_ about a thing like that!" Marion exclaimed.

Lily shrugged and put her other arm around Vance's shoulder "Well girls, now that Gilbert Ford saved the day, what would you say about my mother's cookies she gave me this morning for lunch?" she asked them all and they all clasped their hands together and followed Lily back into the classroom.

* * *

"I wish I was there for you, Hester." Selwyn confessed to his sister when both of them were taking a walk down the shore later that day.

Hester put a strand of her hair behind her ear and she put her hand into Selwyn's "Oh, but it's fine, Selwyn. I know that you don't like confrontations like that." she told him with a tender smile.

He sighed wistfully "I wish I did, just a little." he replied and squeezed her hand "But all the same, I'm glad that you think you'll be fine at school from now on." he smiled at her thankfully and Hester smiled back.

"Yes, I think I will." she said, her voice sounding lighter than it did in months "And will _you_ , Selwyn?" she asked him worriedly.

"Sure I will." he answered decidedly "I'm glad that I have Walt and John with me and that's for sure. Yes, I'm certain that I'll be fine with school." he grinned at her assuringly "And Gil is _already_ good with a new school." his eyes brightened up as well.

Hester chuckled while looking at the ocean's waves hitting the beach's sand "Definitely true." she said "I just wish that…" she sighed and Selwyn looked at her with worry in his eyes "-that we were here, but that dad was here with us."

Selwyn sighed sadly again and put his arm around her shoulders "I wish that too." he said "But you know what Hester, it's because of dad not being here with us, _we_ are here, and somehow I feel like this adventure will turn into something more than just a one year movement."

The wind blew softly onto their faces, and it was as if a wind of destiny and distant whispers blew onto them with it too. Both Hester and Selwyn felt it but didn't say anything, they just shared a glance with each other and they both knew that it was the time when their lives really _were_ starting to change.


	4. A Letter And Talents

_**Chapter IV**_

14th September 1936,

Dear Dad,

I'm very glad and joyful that you are enjoying your time spent in the beautiful Paris. I wish I was there with you so that we both could take funny pictures together like we always did whenever we were going together on a trip.

You are asking me to tell you everything what happened this week and so I will gladly do just that as I think that this way I will be able to gather all of my thoughts together because this week was full of different, wonderful and not extremely wonderful things happening all at the same time.

Lily is still asking me ( _begging_ would be more precise) to play for her, Marion and Vance but Daddy you know me and _you_ know how nervous I am to play in front of more than two people around me. I know that I will play for them all one day, I just need some more time practising with my new teacher Mrs Daniels.

Yes, you guessed right, I had my first lesson with my new music teacher this week, exactly two days ago and it was simply wonderful. But let me first tell you a bit more about Mrs Daniels herself. Mrs Daniels has such an amazingly unique style of clothing, she never wears dresses or skirts, she told me, she wears _only_ trousers and shirts, and she looks just like she sounds, _wonderfu_ l.

Her hair is really short and very curly, it reaches her chin and she has the clearest blue eyes either Mum or me have ever seen. But the most important thing is is that she is an _amazing_ music teacher. She plays four instruments and even when she speaks you can see that she always has music in her head, just like me, and I think that is the thing that connects us both the most. We focus on my cello the most of course, and so I have music lessons with her four times a week, two lessons for cello, one for violin and one for piano. I feel so excited while writing _this_ to you! I can't wait until you meet her in person, Dad, I know you will like Mrs Daniels very much.

Mum already loves her and after the first lesson we had together both of them had tea and biscuits on the verandah and talked for _two_ hours! Mrs Daniels's first name is Posy, isn't it a sweet name? "But not as sweet as _yours_ " Mummy said and I have a feeling you'll write me back saying the same thing, but I love the name "Posy" and its meaning especially: "a bunch of flowers".

Mrs Daniels and I started to work on Elgar's Concerto: 1st Movement for cello and I don't think I have ever felt so natural while playing this composition. You know how much I've always loved it and I know how much _you_ 've always loved it as well. So I'm practising it and if I could I would have skipped all of my lessons at school and practise it all day long instead, but it's mean of me to say that because I _like_ school.

The girls aren't gossiping about me anymore, not since Gilly made his entrance and became my hero. But I don't have friends at school apart from Marion, Vance and Lily of course. I know it will sound foolish and a bit selfish but I would like to have a new friend who doesn't belong to my family. Of course Vance doesn't, not really, but she is like family as she's always around, as well as her siblings are. But I'll see, maybe there is or _will_ be someone in the Glen school whom I haven't met yet and who will become my kindred spirit. I hope so.

Vance and I started talking, eventually. After that first day at school we talked more and more with each passing break and lunch and walks back home. Vance is very much like Marion, just in a more timid and gentle way. Marion is shy and just like an angel but she's not afraid to speak when she needs or feels obliged to. Wheras Vance doesn't really want to share what's on her mind but when she does start talking, she's fascinating.

I think that Vance and Selwyn would be greatest of friends, they both love and read the same books, novels and books of poetry. I told this new revelation to Selwyn and he grinned, in his funny hardly noticeable way you know well enough yourself Daddy, but he only said that he will see whether they are meant to be friends and that he'll leave it in the hands of destiny. I hope that his and Vance's destiny will make them both good friends one day.

But there were some unpleasant situations too this week, unfortunately.

At the beginning of the week, I made my way to Rainbow Valley and sat with the copy of "The Great Gatsby" in my lap right under the White Lady. The wind was blowing so softly and it was so warm that for a moment I forgot about the world around me and Dad, it felt _so_ good to forget about a world for a _moment_ , maybe it does seem silly but I felt so free, you know. I know you understand, just like Mummy always does.

And so I was reading and then suddenly I heard the high pitched laugh belonging to Jo and her best-friend Bernadette. They broke the entire sweet and magical mood of the beautiful Rainbow Valley but I thought nothing of it and continued with reading my book. It was until a few second later when Jo cleared her throat and I realised that she stood above me with her hands on her hips and her feet tramping impatiently "Do you mind?" she asked me loudly as if I spoke in a different language.

"But… What is it, Jo?" I asked her, being more confused than ever.

"It's _our_ place." she replied and she and Bernadette shared a glance which I didn't think of as a pleasant one.

"Can I stay here, please? I just want to read my book. I won't say a word, I promise." I said and Jo sighed heavily but she agreed and they both sat a few metres away from me, but I could still hear them gossiping.

I really don't know why Jo has such a strange and very cold personality. Oh, she's nice to Gil and to Mum, she doesn't notice Selwyn at all and she clearly doesn't like _me_ , without any reason, I think. I once heard Auntie Nan and Uncle Jerry talking with Mum (I swear Dad I _wasn't_ eavesdropping, I just happened to be in the kitchen preparing a galss of lemonade for me and Selwyn) about Jo and they too were trying to think where she got this part of her personality from.

John is so nice and funny, he's so unlike Jo who is his sister after all. He, Selwyn and Walt are real bosom friends who would never try to insult anyone. But Jo _does_ insult others, even Lily admitted to me some the other day that Jo isn't nice to her either, but Lily is more open than I am and so she also added that the two of them argue quite a lot as well. I do hope that Jo and I will find a way to become friends after all. Even if it will take years, I intend to unlock Jo's heart and see what's inside, every inch of it and the reason behind it too.

The other person whom I'm not so fond of and not so sure about is unfortunately Gil's "best pal" as he calls him, and Vance's older brother Marshall. Mum says he's a lot like you, Dad, but I can't really imagine you teasing girls as much as _he_ does.

Gil tries to prevent Marshall from teasing me, he says he doesn't mind if Marshall teases any other girls (for which I gave him a disapproving look) but just not his sister. But Marshall doesn't listen and whenever he sees me he messes up my hair or _pulls_ my braid really hard and calls me a "kid" or a " _baby_ "! But I'm _not_ a baby anymore, Dad! I will be _thirteen_ years old next year and that is something which proves that I am _not_ a baby anymore. Baby Delia _is_ a baby, she's only two years old, but I am _not_ anymore. I never speak to him, I'd prefer if he didn't speak to me at all, that's all and my world would be much prettier. But Gil says that he will "set him straight" one day and I will always trust in anything Gilly says to me.

Oh, Dad, we miss you _so much_. I miss you so much that I think if I would be old enough, I would pack my small suitcase and leave for Europe _today_ just to hug you and talk with you for one day.

Mum is so wonderful, but I think you know that far too well. She's so joyful all the time and she's so strong for all three of us. Sometimes I feel bad for telling her all about my worries and doubts and all the silly stresses which I know myself _are_ silly. I always ask her to tell me if there's something weighing on her chest but she always replies that there is nothing weighing on her chest just the joy over the fact that she has all three of us near her and her family next to her too. But I see in her eyes that she misses you, terribly.

I always kiss a picture of you (which I have standing on my night-table) before I go to sleep. And then I smile and think that your day is just starting when mine is ending.

Write to me Daddy, as often as you always do. And blew a kiss to the Eiffel Tower from me too, please.

Be careful,

I love you always,

Your daughter,

Hester

* * *

It was the beginning of October. The leaves on the trees were turning their colour to orange and red, the wind was becoming colder, the clouds were just a little bit more grey but the atmosphere in Glen and Four Winds was still the same, just as calm and magical as always.

But this scene didn't take place outside, not even in the frequently visited Rainbow Valley. Hester was sitting on a chair in her room in the House of Dreams, she played her cello and Vance was lying on her bed, her eyes twinkling and enchanted by the girl who was sitting in front of her.

Hester's fingers were dancing along the strings, fast, faster, slow and slower, louder and suddenly quiet again. The bow held by her right hand hopped between the strings swiftly and it seemed to Vance as if Hester'd whole being in that moment was the music she played.

Yes, Hester started composing her own compositions, just like Lily advised her to do so a few weeks earlier. But only after those few weeks did Hester try playing her own one minute long composition to others. Her brothers and her mother heard it a few hours earlier, Rilla's eyes were full of pride and tears, Gilly's face was smiling and Selwyn's eyes were closed but his lips formed a sweet tender smile of his own.

It was a shame but Lily and Marion couldn't come and visit Hester on that day as they were both at the Manse with their grandparents, John and Rosemary, who on that day came back from their one week long "holiday" to Halifax.

But Vance did come and Hester was glad because Vance, just like Lily and Marion, started becoming her friend and it was making her soul to jump up and down from joy over the thought that for the first time in her life Hester met girls whose souls spoke in the same language as hers.

Eventually, Hester finished her piece and she took off the bow from the strings and smiled at Vance whose face seemed very still. But it only took her a few seconds to sit back up and take Hester's hands in hers with a wide grin spreading on her thin lips "Oh, Hester," she breathed out "-it was _magical_."

Hester breathed a sigh of relief and she squeezed Vance's hands "I don't think it's _this_ good yet, but I'm trying my best." she said, with colour springing onto her cheeks.

"But Hester, it _was_ this good." Vance protested looking at the instrument her friend held "And the fact that you composed it yourself makes it even better."

Hester kissed Vance's cheek and stood up to put her bow and her cello away, as delicately as if she was afraid to break it, although the cello belonged to her for a very long time "I played it for Mrs Daniels as well." she said when she sat next to Vance "And she said that it was " _really spectacular_ " and I don't think I have ever felt so proud and happy in my whole life." she put her hands on her flushed cheeks and chuckled cheerfully.

Vance smiled at her gently "I agree with Mrs Daniels." she said "Hester, do you want to become a composer in the future?" she asked her suddenly.

Hester sighed with indecision in the air around her "I don't know…" she said honestly "It would be _so_ wonderful I don't think I would be able to bear it!" she smiled to herself, her eyes turning dreamy "But I know that I want to teach others one day."

"You would do a splendid job, that's for sure." Vance said kindly "I wish I had my own talent." she sighed dully.

Hester took her hand into her own again "Why, Vance, everyone has their own talents." she said.

"Well, not me." she replied wistfully "Marshall is passionate about art and his sketches make our parents to smile at him with pride, so does Cornelia's ambition to become a nurse, but me…" she sighed again "-I'm not good in anything."

"How can you say that?" Hester said "Vance, I don't know everything about you _yet_ , but from the first time I saw you I just knew that you are the kindest and the nicest person I have ever met." she smiled at Vance and she smiled back at her, although only lightly "And I can't wait to learn more about you and to tell you all about your hidden talents."

Vance chuckled then and so did Hester, feeling happy that she made Vance to laugh even if it was just a little. And Hester would learn about Vance's hidden talents, and if she was told about them on that day, she probably wouldn't quite believe them. But for now, Hester and Vance were too young to really know what other talents were hidden behind their personalities and so they spent the whole evening on the talent most of us have anyway, they spent the evening on talking and laughing.


	5. Evening At The Shore

_**Chapter V**_

"Oh, what a _swell_ day it was today!" Lily exclaimed while putting her long arms around Marion's and Hester's shoulders, her fingers slightly touching Vance's arm as well.

It was alomst sunset, the sky was turining pink, the clouds reflected the colour of the sky above them, the sand on the shore felt wet but not too wet, and the waves were calm and not as cold as one would expect them to be at the end of the month of October. Hester walked along the shore with Marion, Vance and Lily and all of their cheeks were flushed with just as bright pink as the pink covering the sky at that moment. Each of the girls were muffled up in their autumn scarfs and they looked as if they really were dressed for the chilly autumn which was on the boundary with winter. But actually all of their feet, all four pairs of feet, were bare and were being touched by the waves coming straight from the ocean.

All in all, the jolly girls made a beautiful picture.

The girls nodded in agreement "Yes, but today also proved that I have to practise _much_ more than I think to become at least half as good as _you_ in sewing." Hester said, her black hair following the brisk breeze and flowing to the front of her head and back.

Lily rolled her eyes and chuckled "Oh, _please_ Hester." she said to her friend "It's fine! And isn't it a nice way to spend the whole Saturday evening together? Me teaching you how to sew, then all of us having a picnic in the Rainbow Valley…"

"And auntie Nan telling us off for being outside when it started to rain…" Marion added and the three girls next to her laughed together at the memory of their turning red-faced aunt Nan with an apron around her waist, trying her best to teach Jo how to cook a delicious pie which in the end turned out to be quite the opposite of delicious.

"The whole day was all very sweet." Vance said timidly and Lily went around to her side and squeezed her small hand with her bigger one.

"I think so too." she said cheerfully "And doesn't it feel even nicer to think that we still have one more day until we have to welcome Monday again?" she asked them.

"Yes, it is very nice." Hester agreed "And I can't wait for tomorrow as I have my lesson with Mrs Daniels, or rather _Posy_ as she prefers me to call her now." her eyes twinkled with excitement.

"Is it a violin lesson this time?" Marion asked.

"Yes, and I _can't_ wait!" Hester squealed and the girls around her giggled "I will always think of the cello as my most beloved instrument but violin would always be the second one."

"I wish _I_ could play an instrument…" Lily sighed with an expression on her face which could easily describe a wonderer "But I suppose that my ears and my fingers, as well as my _mind_ aren't capable of such things."

Hester smiled at her kindly "Everyone has their own small interests as well as smaller and bigger things they're good in, Lily." she said while another wave covered her bare feet once more "Look at your clothes, you made most of them _yourself_!"

Lily put her head higher and she grinned at the girls around her with pride "I must admit that that's something I like to do and what actually turns out fine when I touch it." she said "In opossite to maths of course." she rolled her eyes and girls laughed again.

"Vance is really good in maths." Hester said and winked at the blonde-haired girl walking beside them all.

Vance's cheeks turned pink but she smiled back nonetheless "Thank you Hester." she replied quietly "And I would love to help you with anything you want, Lily. _If_ I will be able to, of course." she looked at Lily with this sweet little glance and Lily hopped to Vance's side again.

"Oh, I _do_ need your help!" she exclaimed "Daddy tries to help me but whenever he sits down with me, he gets another call and he has to go out to his patient. Oh, I know Vance that you're a year below me but it doesn't matter in some areas in maths, does it? _Well_!" she kissed Vance's cheek contentedly "Thank you, dear."

"You're welcome, Lily." Vance replied shyly, a timid smile in the corner of her lips.

Hester closed her eyes and her lips formed into a joyful grin. She felt the wind caressing her black hair and smooth cheeks, the waves coming and going covering and uncovering her feet, the soft chatter of Lily's in her ears and the squeezes she was getting from both Marion and Vance. On that evening she could swear that she felt almost positively perfectly happy. She would feel perfectly happy if her father would be waiting for her with her mother at the House of Dreams… But Hester didn't allow herself to be sentimental and sad, she promised her dad that she wouldn't be and Hester _never_ broke any promises in her whole life. She forgot about the coldness of Jo and the teasiness of Marshall, she even forgot about her dad being so far away from Canada for a whole second. Life felt beautiful, and Hester discovered in that moment that indeed the small things, small happenings were making life beautiful even if just for a few moments.

"Walt is head over heels about your sister, Vance." Lily shook her head and Hester opened her eyes, but her grin still remained on her lips "We hardly ever see him in the house now. He's either out with John and Selwyn," she bowed her head towards Hester and she smiled at her gently "-or on an escapade with " _Nell_ " as he calls her." she sighed heavily.

"I'm happy for him." Marion added with a soft grin on her pink lips.

"Oh, I am too, but…" Lily said and humphed "-Walt is just fourteen years old after all. Isn't he a bit too young to know that he is or is not in love?" she asked the girls around her and finally settled her eyes expectantly on Hester who she knew was the least shy to answer her open questions.

"I think that when you are in love, you just _are_ , never mind however old you are." Hester said eventually "But then I'm _not_ an expert." she grinned at the girls around her who smiled back at her.

"None of us are, dear." Lily sighed "But I do hope that I will know this feeling _one_ day!" she said excitedly, her eyes sparkling.

"Me too!" all of the three remaining girls agreed readily in unison and the space around them filled with laughter again.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you all some news that my mum got this morning." Hester said suddenly to her companions who looked at her with interest in their eyes "Mother got a letter from Jims Anderson and he wrote to her that he just arrived in London…" she started.

"London?" Lily asked.

"Yes." Hester replied ""Little" Jims as mum calls him, finished his law degree as you now, in June, and he got his very first job as a lawyer in central London, in Kensington I think he wrote." she raised her eyebrows in a funny way.

"How exciting!" Lily exclaimed.

"I wonder what it feels like to live in London." Marion said and put a strand of her hair behind her ear.

"It must be _marvellous_." Lily sighed dramatically and the girls giggled once more.

"But probably a bit crowded too." Vance added.

"Probably yes, but _marvellously_ all the same." Lily said decidedly and then turned to Hester again "Did he write anything else?"

"He sent us some English tea and three underground maps which I stuck on the board above the desk in my room so that you can all see it when you'll visit me tomorrow." she replied joyfully "Mother says that she can't wait for Jims to visit the Island again and give us all a visit, and to be honest _I_ can't wait too, I hardly remember how "cousin" Jims looks like now." she said dully.

"Me neither." Lili sighed helplessly "I do remember his hair though, it was always so fluffy I remember, but I can't recall his face, not really. But I _do_ remember that he was so much fun..." she chuckled at the memory crossing her mind.

Hester, Marion and Vance who even though wasn't an offcial member of their family had the pleasure to meet the famous Jims Anderson, followed Lily's actions as each of their heads filled with one or two memories of the two week vacation Jims brought for them one summer three years earlier.

"But I have more news." Hester declared "Mother got another letter from auntie Gertrude this time."

"And what did she say?" Lily asked eagerly.

"She made a really nice surprise for mum as she wrote her that she and her family just moved to _Florida_!" Hester announced being as excited as if she herself moved to Florida and not her 'auntie" Gertrude.

"So to the world of palms." Marion sighed happily.

"Yes, exactly there." Hester said with a grin "She invited all of us but of course we can't go now, it's definitely too far away and besides…" Hester's eyes got a bit misty "-I know that all of us and especially mum need our family near us right now."

Vance squeezed Hester's hand, Marion smiled gently and with sympathy towards Hester and Lily put her arms around her shoulders "We know, sweetie." Lily said to her "And you can't imagine how glad _we_ are to have you here."

"I wish all of our cousins and aunts and uncles lived here near us." Marion added.

"Yes, I do too." Lily nodded and Hester smiled with agreement "Auntie Di with cousins Ada and David, but it's good that we at least see them every summer and Christmas holidays."

"Yes, especially because we hardly ever see uncle Carl…" Marion began and Hester finished.

"And auntie Persis." she said "But they _do_ live in England though."

"And it's _so_ far away!" Lily added.

"But it's still an island." Vance said quietly and the girls smiled at her.

"And somehow because of this small fact, smiles are brought onto our faces." Hester concluded and she and the girls around her knew that she was right.

"When is your dad going to see them again?" Lily asked Hester.

"Daddy will travel over to England for Christmas so that he will spend the vacation with family." she explained with a cheerful smile "It gives me comfort, to know that during this family-Christmas-time, he won't be alone."

"And think about it, your dad will be here with all of us, and _you_ , again next Christmas!" Lily patted Hester on the shoulder.

"I can't wait for that." she whispered hopefully and with this joyful air swimming around them just like the waves washing over their feet, a strong blow of wind hit them and Hester's scarf fell off her neck and started dancing with the wind, making its way towards the sunset.

The girls laughed again and their laughter echoed along the shore, straight through the old Lighthouse and even Rilla, who was sitting and reading her husband's letter on the verandah at the House of Dreams, thought she heard it too and she smiled, thinking that even when one's life might feel sorrowful for a moment, a simple wave of laughter could change it back to a moment full of cheer, hope, and simply joy.


	6. Past, Present And The Future

**_Chapter VI_**

When November of the year 1936 came to the Island of Prince Edward, Hester couldn't feel more inspired to compose her new short and long compositions for both cello or violin. The colours were so vibrant, as if the Autumn itself spoke to her from every corner, and Hester knew well enough herself that it wouldn't last long, it was supposed to be the very first day of December in a matter of four weeks time.

Hester was getting her inspiration from the view in front of her especially when she was sitting on the verandah of the House of Dreams or on the rocks standing so silently on the shore just a few minutes away from her home.

It feels so strange, Hester thought when she was sitting in the armchair on the mentioned verandah with her knees pressed to her chin and covered in the blue blanket made by her grandma Leslie, it feels so strange to be sitting here on the verandah of the House of Dreams and not on the verandah of the Golden Bells.

Yet she enjoyed it. The truth was was that she did miss her home, how could she not miss it when she spent most of her life between the walls of Golden Bells in the quietest area of Toronto. But two of the houses had such different souls!

Golden Bells was a modern house with modern furniture inside and a still new touch covering it from the bottom of the doorstep to the very top of the roof. It was slightly bigger than the House of Dreams, but not any less cosy. It was Hester's home, where she lived for nine years of her life. That's where she was when she started playing cello and then violin and eventually a piano. That's where she spent so many hours talking with each of her parents, and her grandparents, Leslie and Owen, who lived only three streets away.

But the House of Dreams had its own wonderful charm. It's true that it _was_ smaller, each of the bedrooms upstairs were smaller than the bedrooms in Golden Bells, but the charm, _oh_ the charm! Golden Bells was bulit only four years before Hester and her family moved in whereas the House of Dreams had been someone's "house of dreams" for so many _many_ years! The very thought was causing Hester to feel a thrill passing through her skin, she loved the feeling of the old penetrating the walls around her, the views in front of her and the objects, like photos, held in her hands.

The House of Dreams always presented ghosts of its own to Hester and to everyone else with a vivid imagination, like Hester's own imagination and her older brother Selwyn's. They spent many hours talking about what all those people, their _own_ ancestors for that matter, did or felt while living between those walls. They looked at the floor, the very floor where they all stood, dancing, walking, cleaning, sweeping, crying, worrying and laughing.

Both siblings pictured their grandma Anne and grandpa Gilbert crossing the doorstep as a newly married couple, with no knowledge of the fact that their daughter and her three children would live there one day as well. Both of them also thought about the auntie they never had a chance to meet, Joyce Blythe, and what a wonderful person she would have been if she lived.

Hester smiled to herself while a gentle wind blew onto her smooth face and she came back from the golden and pink clouds of her imagination. Suddenly, she noticed another person standing next to her, a person who was looking at the view in front of him. She turned her head and grinned again, taking the hand of her brother as gently as Hester always used to "Selwyn," she whispered "-what are you thinking of?" she asked him tenderly.

Selwyn sat down gracefully in the armchair next to Hester and squeezed her small hand in his, smiling back at her "About different things." he answered dreamily, his eyes twinkling in this special way Hester knew so well "What about you? You seem like a perfect picture of happiness."

"I suppose that I must have looked like that and that happens when I'm dreaming." she replied merrily "Dreaming gives you the opportunity to be the happiest person you want to be."

"That's very true, Hester, and I couldn't have said it better myself." Selwyn said to her just as joyfully, his auburn curls swinging in the air.

"Are Gilly and mother home yet?" she asked him wjile turning her head towards the door behind her.

"No, they're not." Selwyn said "Gil went with Marshall, Jo and Bernadette to the cafe in town and mum said that she was asked by aunt Una to stay for supper and so I think that we have at least two more hours with just the two of us." he smiled gently towards his sister.

"I almost feel as if you and I owned this house together now." Hester said, her dreamy voise filling her throat "Now that mum and Gil are away and we are sitting here on the verandah looking at the garden and the sea from the distance."

Selwyn chuckled quietly "We must look like an old married couple, don't you think?" he asked her "Although we're neither." he added with a smirk on his handsome boyish face.

Hester giggled as quietly as her brother chuckled a few moments earlier "You know I can imagine both of us being married to someone for so long that our family would be able to call both of us and both of our spouses an "old married couple"." she said "But I can't imagine Gilly ever loving a girl so much he woud marry her." she shook her head while thinking.

Selwyn humphed and looked at the bush of withered roses in front of them "I agree that Gil certainly isn't a type of person who can easily fall in love with one girl and then make up his mind to marry her and spend his whole life with her." Selwyn sighed softly thinking about his crazy and prosy older brother.

Hester sighed too "I just don't understand _why_ Gil always winks at _every_ single girl, as if he wanted every girl to be 'his' girl." she said with a little sound of disappointment in her voice.

"Mum says that he is in this age, but I don't agree with her." Selwyn added "I think that people are born with a certain personality and although it can change, it _can't_ change entirely, regardless the age."

Hester grinned at him softly "I think you're right." she agreed "But I wouldn't want to change Gil at all, even if it was possibe." she said with pride over her brother who everyone recognised as the bravest and cleverest in the whole clan.

Selwyn smiled at Hester "I agree." he said hopefully "And you know what, little sister, I believe and I _feel_ that one day a girl will appear on Gil's horizon and she won't look or be like any other girl he has met before, and she will change him and she will make his heart love her quite instantly." Selwyn's face formed into a delightful face of a dreamer.

Hester looked at her brother with shining eyes. She studied his face and she knew that although there was truth in what he was saying, that he was talking about Gilly, she also knew that in his words there was also a small hope for his own future. Hester knew her brothers too well not to be able not to read straight through them, at least for now, although one day she would discover that she wouldn't be able to that so easily.

Hester smiled, as if to herself and looked at the not so distant ocean, following the dreamy eyes of Selwyn. She was only twelve, but didn't every girl or at least most of the girls her age have this small amount of hope for her own little love story one day? It was so distant for Hester, although she could imagine everything, how _he_ would look like, how they would meet, how they would fall in love…

Hester sighed with contentment in her heart. Future seemed so brigth, so full of possibilities and light and promises and dreams not only for her but for each of her siblings and cousins. She didn't know that the future she built in her mind would be disturbed and disrupted in only three years time. But on that chilly November evening both Hester and Selwyn, and their brother Gil along with all of their cousins, were still far behind this veil of adulthood.

Hester reached for Selwyn's hand and he took hers gently in his own. Both of them looked in front of them with vivid and beautiful hopes for the future right in front of their eyes, and the sunset colouring the sky. Oh, how good it was sometimes, Hester thought to herself, to be _just_ twelve years old!

* * *

"Thank God you didn't burn like the last time." Rilla murmured to herself when she took out her attempted sugar-free pie from Una's recipe, from her oven with literally shaking hands. Rilla looked at her pie, all nicely made and nurtured and put it aside to cool down. It will wait for her children to come back home from school, it was a Friday after all and they all _deserved_ a nice treat.

Rilla chuckled quite sadly to herself, Gil _did_ receive a C in his English essay a day before but she knew that English never was his big interest (unlike it was to both of his siblings), his interests were arts and designing. Rilla knew all about her son's big ambition to become an architect one day and she was so very proud of him that she couldn't mind him getting a C in English.

Oh, how good it was to have such beautiful and talented babies… Babies? Rilla asked herself when she was taking off her apron. They clearly started stopping being babies now, Gil was turning seventeen next May, Selwyn would be fifteen a month after Gilly and her one and only daughter would turn thirteen just a few days after her oldest brother would turn seventeen. It amazed her that her babies weren't babies anymore, or soon wouldn't be. She was about to say that the time flies fast but then she didn't because when she thought about it, it really _didn't_ fly so fast for her. And she was extremely grateful for it.

Rilla put a kettle on and looked out of the window and outside the window was the unchanged sandy red road she knew so well, since the early days of her childhood and then throught the first years of her marriage to a certain Kenneth Ford. Her hazel eyes filled with fresh tears she always hid away from her children, and even her own mother. What was it that he whispered to her before he boarded a ship to Europe? "Cheer up dearest Rilla-my-Rilla, I'll be always with you wherever I will be." that's what Ken told her the last time she saw him before he shipped out to France.

Rilla cleared her throat and the tears slowly disappeared. She had to be strong for her children and for her husband, she knew he didn't like it when she trembled from an unreasonable fear and to be honest she didn't like that either.

"Come on Hester, he was only teasing!"

Rilla turned her head and saw all of her three children walking into the hallway. She shook her head but a smile appeared on her face, she didn't even see or hear their footsteps! But her brows furrowed when she saw a certain expression on her daughter's face.

Gilbert was as always jolly and a smirk on his face was still visible, Selwyn's eyes were somehwat far away and his calmness kept him the quietest of the trio, and eventually there was Hester with bright red cheeks, furious eyes and a braid completely disassembled resting on her shoulder.

" _Teasing_?" Hester asked Gil back angrily, Hester who was _never_ angry at anyone or anything! "But _Phillip Jones_ was more than teasing, he was trying to get _my_ attention!" and she groaned, and all the Fords around her looked at her with astonishment, was it the same timid Hester Ford sitting on the chair in front of them?

"Could someone tell me what has happened?" Rilla asked her children while tramping impatiently her feet on the floor, her hands on her hips and all other worries forgotten.

"There is a new boy in our class." Hester explained, her voice still sounding annoyed and frustrated "He moved with his parents from the United States, New York, and he is in my _every_ class from now on." she sighed heavily "He started teasing me by pulling my braid every now and then and then saying that I must be very _boring_ because I don't respond to him at all, and so I turned around and told him to leave me alone because I just _didn't_ want to talk with him and _Phillip_ , as that's his name, crossed his arms, with this horrible smirk across his face and said that he thought I was a nicer girl with _manners_." she groaned again and stood up just to put her hands on her cheeks.

Rilla smiled gently at her daughter and put her arm around her shoulders "Darling, you musn't think about him and his teasing so much. He's still so small, just twelve years old like you after all, and... forgive me my dear boys," she looked at both of her sons with an apologetic look on her face "-this Phillip Jones is _only_ a man."

Selwyn chuckled quietly and shared a knowing glance with Gilly who laughed outloud and stretched out his legs "Wasn't it what _I_ just said too, Hes?" Gil asked his sister with a raised brow.

Hester grinned lightly at her older brother and sat next to him on the chair "Well, I have two days off from school before the Monday will come again, so I suppose that I will just have to try to forget about… _him_." her face grew red again.

Gilly smirked and put a hand to his mouth, turning his head to Rilla "Not to mention," he stage whispered "-that every girl in Hester's class is _crazy_ about Phillip's looks!" and then laughed with a fake evil laugh that would always make his father laugh at him so hard that his cheeks would turn wet.

Rilla and Selwyn couldn't keep it inside them and laughed together as well. Hester looked at each of her siblings' and her mother's face and for a moment she was forbidding herself even to smile. Was it _so_ funny that some Phillip Jones was teasing her and calling her a girl without manners? But then she too started laughing, and they all thought that for a moment the ghosts of the past of the old House of Dreams laughed with them too.


	7. A Walk To Hester Gray's Garden

_**Chapter VII**_

It was eventually December and the long awaited Christmas was finally just around the corner, and it would eventually take place in two days time. It was a tradition in Hester's family to have Christmas one year at Ingleside, then another year at Green Gables and then another at Golden Bells and because last Christmas was held at the Ingleside, in the last month of the year 1936 Christmas simply had to take place at Green Gables, in the old but not forgotten Avonlea.

It had been two whole years since Hester visited Green Gables and she was extremely excited to visit it again, a place without which neither she nor her siblings, her cousins, her parents, her aunts and her uncles wouldn't even be born.

Being a city girl she was, Hester always appreciated every visit to the countryside or small towns like Glen, Four Winds or Avonlea. She loved the city life but every now and then she needed some space and piece of quietness _all_ around her, with no fear that it would be disturbed in any way. Avonlea never did lose its enchanting charm, a spell even, and so when Hester and her whole family arrived there, they were in awe of their old Avonlea covered in beautiful snow with just as white clouds right above it.

It was as if she was in a completely different world, she thought, and it gave her the piece of quietness and calmness she needed. With all her stresses at school (not mentioning a very 'triggering' name of a certain "Phillip Jones" who still had the nerve to call Hester names like "raven" or a "crow" at every occasion) and the emptiness she still felt in her heart over her father being so far away from her during Christmas, even though she was receiving his letters every four days, she really needed this piece of pure silence.

Di welcomed her family with open arms. She hadn't changed one bit since the last time we saw her, only a few wrinkles were faintly added to her forehead and cheeks. Her husband of twenty years, Jack Wright, stood by her side proudly with his own arms opened towards Hester and her family. Next to Mr and Mrs Wright stood their two children, same age as Hester Ada who was a perfect copy of her mother in both looks and personality, and her one year younger brother David with red hair but brown eyes and perfectly smooth cheeks. Ada always had a connection with Hester even though they weren't closest of friends, but they did write letters to each other every two weeks. David on the other hand was always a good friend of Selwyn's and Selwyn would always invite David to his small clan consisting of Walt and John who would never actually talk to David themselves because he _was_ after all three years younger than all of them but who also knew that Selwyn did like him and did talk to him.

It was nice to see both of the cousins Hester hardly got to chance to see in person during the year. She wished that her auntie Persis and uncle Carl could make it for Christmas with their children, Tom and Dawn, as well but they couldn't. England is _so_ far away, Hester used to sigh while thinking about the auntie, uncle and her cousins whom she last saw three years earlier.

But there was an addition to the family that year as Bruce Meredith also made his way to Avonlea, from Montreal, with a beautiful green-eyed brunette looking adoringly in his own blue eyes. Bruce surprised everyone with the news of him being engaged to the law graduate called Louise. Rosemary and John Meredith were overwhelmed with happiness that their Bruce got himself a girl who was as beautiful, intelligent and as nice as Lousie was. Everyone was just as eager to meet her as Louise was to meet them.

It was a very joyful reunion of the family, most of the family at least, and Hester was very merry and… musical. Whenever she felt happy she always felt the urge to reach for her cello and start playing and that was exactly what she _would_ do but couldn't because she left her instruments at the House of Dreams, except for the violin which was much easier to carry than the cello. But Hester didn't want to start playing yet, she still felt shy around her huge family and she already promised to play some Christmas carols on the Christmas Eve, so _why_ should she do two concerts and be stressed twice if she can get a lump in her throat only _once_ instead?

Two days before Christmas Eve, Anne took Hester out for a walk. Anne always found time to spend some time alone with each of her grandchildren, and when she was getting an occassion to spend some time with a grandchild of hers who usually lived quite far away from her, she never pushed it away for the world.

Anne had a walk with both Ada and David a day earlier already and her heart was rejoicing to see both of her grandchildren, who look so much like her own daughter and son-in-law, children who have Diana Barry of the old as their grandmother, walking next to her along the Lover's Lane and the Haunted Wood. So many memories had crossed her mind whenever she was in Avonlea again... She took a walk with Gilbert right after they all settled down in Green Gables and then Diana and Fred joined them as well and they all felt like twenty year olds all over again. It was certainly one of those moments of her life she would carry in her heart forever, just like any other walk she took with Gilbert, Diana and Fred all those years earlier.

But there was her granddaughter walking beside her now, Hester, her small hand in a red glove in her own hand in a blue glove, silence surrounding them, snow covering the roads they walked… They were both walking silently for a few minutes, and they didn't feel awkward at all, how could they? With the beauty of nature speaking to them so plainly? But then Hester decided to ask her grandmother something she wanted to ask her ever since they left Green Gables promising to come back in half an hour's time "Grandma, _where_ are we going?" she asked gently.

Anne put her arm around Hester's shoulder and squeezed it tenderly "To the garden of the lady you were named after." she replied and winked at her granddaughter. Hester smiled radiantly and her eyes focused on the frozen trees all around her once again.

Hester knew why she was named after Hester Gray, her parents told her that story a long time before she took that walk with her grandma. Rilla and Ken decided that if their new baby, after Selwyn of course, would be a boy again they would probably name him "West" after the maiden surname of Ken's mother. They agreed that they wouldn't name their boy "Owen", just like Ken's father insisited on not doing. That was also the reason why Selwyn wasn't named "Owen" although both Rilla and Ken wanted to name him "Owen" at first.

But if their thrid baby would be a girl, Rilla and Ken decided that they wouldn't name her after any of her grandmothers, simply because both of them didn't want them to, just like Owen didn't want his grandson to be named after him. So Rilla and Ken had a real dilemma over the name especially because Rilla said that she felt it _will_ be a girl (and how right she was!).

However on one day which accidentally was exactly thirteen years earlier than the day when Hester took a walk with Anne to the Hester's garden, Rilla, Ken and their two boys made the same walk to the same place walking on the exact amount of white, puffy snow underneath their feet. As accidents and coincidences happen it was in the garden of Hester Gray when Rilla felt her baby girl move under her thick coat she wore on that day for the very first time. Since that day Rilla not only knew and felt that her third child would be a girl but also that she would name her "Hester".

Hester Ford smiled while remembering the tale of how she was named. She liked that story, it felt nice to know that you were named a name you carry around the world because of something meaningful or significant that happened that made your parents to name you _this_ exact name.

The garden of Hester Gray looked simply beautiful on that evening. The grass was completely covered in snow, so were the cherrytrees and the rosebushes, and the two little stone-graves on the left hand side too. The atmosphere was so calm that it was hard to concentrate on anything but the beauty of the whole garden mixed with the perfection of the winter. It seemed to both Hester and Anne as if there was no other life but there, no countries, continents, plantes, galaxies, simply _just_ the garden of Hester Gray and both of them both walking around it.

"Time never changes anything here." Anne whispered in her dreamy voice which also wasn't changed by time at all.

Hester looked up at her grandma's glowing face and smiled at her in response "I sometimes forget that you know this garden longer than any of us." she whispered back.

Anne chuckled quietly and squeezed Hester's hand gently "I do know it longer than any of you, that's true, my dear." she replied "And I feel very privileged that I do. I can't wait for spring to come so that we can all come here once again and see all of those trees and flowers bloom." she sighed with contentment and her soul started to dance with excitement.

Hester grinned radiantly at her, her own eyes dreamy and sparkling "Although I know how this garden will look like in spring, it still gives me a thrill to think about it." Hester said.

"I'm glad that our souls can connect in this way then, sweetheart." Anne said when she put her hand over Hester's pink cheek "But now that it's just the two of us here, tell me: how are you _really_ , Hester?" she asked her sweetly.

"I'm alright, grandma." Hester answered truthfully "I'm happy that I made friends with Lily, Marion and Vance. I love Four Winds and the House of Dreams and the ocean's breeze in both the evening and the morning..." she closed her eyes for a moment longer and then opened them up again "But I miss dad all the same, and school isn't all wonderful either." she sighed heavily.

"Don't worry about your father, dear." Anne told her when she put her arm around her shoulder again "He'll be at home sooner than you think, I promise you." Anne smiled gently at Hester and smiled back at her lightly "Now tell me, _what_ 's going on at school? Is it still about this Phillip boy?" she asked with a raised brow, forbidding herself to smile.

Hester's cheek grew redder than they already were "Yes, _unfortunately_." she said with frustration in her voice "He is still teasing me, _every single day_. If it's not something he'll say, it will be sticking his tongue out, or… or… _winking_!" she groaned angrily and that was exactly when Anne had to stop forbidding her own self to laugh and a soft chuckle escaped her lips causing Hester to look at her with surprise. "Oh, dear Hester," Anne said eventually "-you remind me so much of my own self even though we are both very different, in many ways. But don't you worry about that boy, don't think about him in a bad way too. Believe me, he's just trying to catch your eye and maybe even tries to be friends with you." she grinned gently at her, remembering a certain evening a few nights earlier when she and Gilbert were laughing over how similar Hester's situation with that Phillip boy at the old Glen school was to their own old times from Avonlea school.

Hester shook her head "I can't believe it, grandma, and I _won't_ believe it unless he'll tell me himself." she declared "How can teasing and… and _winking_ be the sign that Philip Jones wants to "catch my eye"?" she asked her.

"You would have to ask your grandfather and _my_ husband about that, sweetie." she told her and gave Hester a knowing look which made Hester to chuckle herself.

"Maybe I _will_ ask grandpa Gilbert about it." she said "But Phillip really behaves like such a little _child_!" she exclaimed with such desperation that Anne looked at her with even wider eyes and a raised brow again.

"They always do, Hester, they _always_ do." she said and her grey eyes went twinkling again but the meaning of its twinkle was known only to Anne herself "But apart from this boy, is school alright now?" she asked her again.

"Yes, "apart from this boy", yes." Hester replied with a lighter voice "I don't have any problems with any subjects but, oh, grandma if only I could just forget about school and play my cello or my violin _or_ my piano _all day_ instead!" she said passionately.

Anne smiled at her granddaughter with pride over how talented Hester was, relfecting in her eyes "I know you would want that and to be honest with you, darling, _I_ would want that for you too but you must go to school, unfortunately. But think about this: in just six more years you'll be able to do _just_ that, just play your cello, violin or a piano all day long and not worry about waking up to school at all." she winked at her and Hester smiled back.

"No worries over geometry at all?" she asked for reassurance and Anne giggled like a little girl herself.

"No geometry _ever_ again!" she laughed and Hester followed her example.

Their laughter echoed in the garden that surrounded them like a soft and warm song, and both of them would always remember that evening for it was truly filled with happiness which was to be disturbed in just a few days time, not mentioning the future which actually wasn't so very far away. But on that evening both Anne and Hester didn't know that yet, and the bliss of the day was covering them from head to toe just like it covered the trees around them.


	8. A Day To Remember

_**Chapter VIII**_

Three days before the year of 1936 would end its life and allow the year of 1937 to be born, like every other year Mary Douglas (nee Vance) along with her husband and their three children took the train to Avonlea to join the family of Blythes, Merediths and Fords in preparing for the newly fresh year which they would spend together.

Gil was jumping up and down to finally get the chance to have a "partner" to tease Jo, Lily or Ada (not Hester of course!) with him and to pretend that he can't see when Marshall prepares himself to pull Hester's black braid out of her hat and say "Hey, kid, you a'right?" with a silly smirk crossing his thin lips.

Walt was also jumping up and down but only when nobody was looking because 'his' girl, Cornelia, promised to save him every evening walk across the Lover's Lane during their stay at Avonlea for the remaining few days of the winter holidays.

Eventually Hester along with Lily and Marion were really excited to have Vance with them too, for as shy and quiet as Vance was, she belonged to their group of bosom friends and without her something _was_ clearly missing. Ada started to belong to that group too although she couldn't belong to them enitirely becuase they all knew that just two days after the New Year's their paths will separete all over again and it simply wasn't the same if Ada lived near them. But as long as they were all together they had the time of their lives.

Hester and her girls spent most of their time between breakfast and lunch-time outside building different things from the snow, having snow fights, laughing, joking, running and sometimes even singing. Lily was singing, to be precise she was _shouting_ , the song of her father's and uncles' and aunts' youth and the time of the War, the song called "Are We Downhearted?" which she knew by heart since she was a small child. Hester, Marion, Ada and Vance were crying with laughter over Lily's voice filling the air around them and her red locks coming out of her blue hat when she pretended to march like a soldier. Vance's mother, Mary, only shook her head and looked over to Jem, Faith, Rilla, Di and Jack laughing together while watching their children all happy and joyful. Mary decided that she would _not_ tell them her piece of mind _this time_ and despite herself smiled at her own jolly daughter too. However when the girls came back home, everyone quickly realised that they were all entirely soaked from the snow and gave the girls _the_ look although they all had a twinkle in their eyes with a flash of memories filling them up.

While waiting for their clothes to dry, the girls declared to take the hand-written recipe from Hester's grandmother, Leslie (who came to Avonlea with her husband Owen for Christmas and New Year's Eve like every other year), and try their best to prepare the best chocolate cookies anyone in their family had ever eaten. The adults agreed happily and even though they promised the girls not to interfere, they couldn't miss the opportunity to peek their heads behind the kitchen door, which was left just slightly opened, "just in case".

It was Hester, surprisingly, who started to sing the Christmas carols while she was mixing the flour and the eggs in the bowl. Hester's voice wasn't especially wonderful but it was only because whenever she was singing she was singing very quietly so that almost no one could ever hear her but when she was around her closest friends around whom she was not that shy, her voice sounded really wonderful while singing "Winter Wonderland". All of the girls joined her eagerly and the old Green Gables seemed almost as alive and vibrant as their singing voices.

The happiness lasted until Lily took out the cookies from the oven and shouted out in dismay: "Oh, _no_! They're all burnt!". Even though for a few moments the girls bent their heads and sighed with disappointment over the loss of what seemed perfectly delicious "future" cookies, they all started laughing, including the adults in the other room.

Hester and her girl-friends would always remember those two precious days they all spent together, firstly because the first day was so much "fun" and they all felt so happy that they didn't even think about anything else but their happiness. Hester even forgot that her dad was all the way in Europe because she felt as if he was right there in Avonlea, looking at her and her friends play in the snow with his arms around Rilla's shoulders at the Green Gables's verandah.

But the girls always remembered this second day too because of the even that happened which caused their young souls to grow up one step further into their upcoming adulthood.

It was exactly two days before New Year's Eve and Gilly with Marshall suggested their cousins and friends to go and have the last ice skating fun in the year of 1936 and of course everyone agreed, especially because it was the most perfect day, however two clouds above the lake just outside Avonlea were still grey and Hester thought, while looking at them when they all walked towards their destination, that they were getting darker with their every step.

"Oh, I'm _so_ excited!" Lily exclaimed when she put on her skates and her frecled cheeks flushed with red "Although I'm not so good in ice-skating, I still love doing it."

Hester smiled at her and finished lacing her own skates "I'm alright with ice-skating, dad always used to go with me every weekend in each winter and he would teach me, but I've never ice-skated on this lake before." she looked at the frozen water in front of her "It's so… huge." she said almost in disbelief.

Lily put her arm around Hester's shoulder "I know." she said "And that's why it will be great." she squeaked and Hester chuckled.

John took Lily's and Marion's hands in his own and he led them to the frozen lake and almost immediately they started racing each other on it, _Marion_ laughing outloud. Hester reached for Vance's hand and Vance reached for Selwyn's who accidentally was standing right beside her and they too entered the ice-skating kingdom.

Gilly and Marshall were already waltzing with Jo and twirling her around first by Gil then Marshall and Gil again. Walt skated along with Cornelia, both of their pairs of cheeks flushed with emotions mixed with the cold in the air. Then of course everyone else started to ice-skate more or less nicely and gracefully, and as it happened the best ice-skater was Selwyn who was skating along with David right next to him. Hester smiled when she looked at the bunch of most of her cousins (of course the youngest cousins weren't allowed to go, even under the protective eyes of almost seventeen year old Gil and Marshall) and the snowy wonderland all around them and all the peace covering it.

She thought that it even felt too good to be true, how that day was truning out, how all the last week was completely faultless as well. As soon as she thought this and a shadow crossed her face, a scream so high-pitched and as terrifying as the death itself paralysed the air of peacefullness and everything stopped, just as soon as the ice under a close friend of Hester's suddenly broke underneath her feet and pulled her into the black freezing water.

Hester stopped in her actions, her body not responding to her mind at all. Everyone around her did exactly the same and then just as suddenly everyone turned their heads swiftly. " _Vance_!" Hester screamed as loud as her thoat allowed her to but her body still forbid her to move.

All Hester could see was Vance's hands reaching out of the water and then being swallowed by the freezing icy water all over again. Hester's heart seemed just as icy and frozen as the ice on which she stood. She thought that it must be a dream, just a silly dream, a silly nightmare which would pass as her mother shaked her to wake her up because she was shouting outloud from her own warm room.

But it _wasn't_ a dream.

Vance was drowning. She was _drowning_ … Hester finally felt her body move and she started to skate quickly to her friend "Vance, _Vance_! Hold on!" she shouted out through tears just in time to feel Selwyn's arm pushing her back.

Hester looked into Selwyn's eyes and noticed that he held a long branch in his hand "Stay here, Hester." he told her quickly and he himself started skating towards the gasping for her life Vance.

Hester obeyed him and she stayed, although her body and mind was telling her to move. _Where_ was Marshall? Where was Cornelia? Where was _Gil_? Where were the oldest of her cousins and the siblings of poor but dearest Vance? Hester's mind was full of everything. What if Selwyn will take her out from the water and save her but it will be too late? What if Vance will survive but she'll get pneumonia and _die_ afterwards? _What if_ … Hester's eyes were already wet with tears.

Suddenly through her tears, Hester saw Selwyn taking off his coat and putting it around Vance's soaked and trembling shoulders. So… So… Hester shouted out again "Vance!" and she reached Selwyn who took Vance in his arms and let her put her arms around his neck "Oh, dear God, are you alright, dear, _are you_?" she breathed out when she took off Vance's soaked hat and put on her head her own red hat.

Vance's purple lips shook as she spoke but her eyes were thankful "Ye-es." she whispered out and looked at her saviour with gratitude. Lily and Marion skated towards them and they too took of their gloves and scarfs and put around shaking Vance.

" _What_ has happened? Oh, Vance! _Vance_!" Cornelia exclaimed while she sprinted towards her younger sister with skates in her hands and a bunch of all the other "lost" people, Gil, Marshall and Walt, behind her.

"Jesus Christ, mum will kill me." Marshall whispered when he carefully took Vance in his own arms from Selwyn's and looked at Selwyn with greatest thankfulness in his green eyes Hester had ever seen "Thank you, Wyn, thank you." he told him and Selwyn simply grinned weakly at him.

"We have to take her home immediately." Cornelia said with desparation in her voice "Walt, can we please use your bike?" she asked her sweetheart and Walt eagerly nodded and put his thick scarf on trembling Vance.

Marshall carrying Vance and Cornelia hurried to the bike and Hester turned to her older brother, her eyes shining with pride "Selwyn," she said with tearful eyes "-how _wonderful_ you were." she told him.

Selwyn put his coatless shaking arm around his sister and hugged her tightly "I'm glad I was here, that's all, dear sister, and that I could help of course." he said.

"Help?" Hester repeated "You _saved_ Vance's life." she said and kissed his cheek.

Selwyn only smiled in reply and that was when Gil took off his own coat and put it around his younger brother's shoulders "I'm so proud of you, Wyn." he said to him "I'm just _so_ angry that we decided to go and look for some wood for fire grandpa asked us to bring _exactly_ in time to not be here when Vance almost… drowned." he gulped as a terrible wave of coldness passed through him.

The Ford siblings looked at one another and suddenly their age, and the differences in personalities completely disappeared not only for them but also for all of their cousins and friends. Lily grabbed Marion's and Walt's hands fiercely and smiled at Hester who smiled back at her and she felt that she didn't have to say anything to let Lily know how much their friendship meant to her in that very moment.

Hester looked at her right, at the cycling Marshall with Vance's arms around his neck and Cornelia running right next to them faithfully and she knew, she knew that Vance would be fine. But Hester also knew that even though there wasn't any tragedy on that day, she felt that because there wasn't she saw life in a completely different light. A light which wasn't so bright anymore and that didn't light up the world so that she could see it as clearly as she did before. There were still _so_ many things she didn't know about it, yet still had to learn about one day.

Hester looked over at her older brother and hero of the day, Selwyn, who started to change his skates to regular shoes in the crowd of his and Hester's cousins. Goodness, how like a man he looked to her now! She would never forget the expression on his face when he held trembling Vance, white as a sheet, in his strong and muscular, _yes_ muscular (she hadn't noticed it before either), arms. It was as if he gained at least five more years, yet he was still the same aspiring young poet belonging to Hester's family.

Hester woud never forget how she and Lily along with Marion looked at each other for a few seconds when they didn't know whether Vance would come out fine from that freezing water. This gaze they shared lasted only for a few moments yet made them much closer, and they all felt it and didn't feel the need to say it outloud.

When later that day Hester was sitting next to Vance's bed, Marion and Lily sitting on the other side and reading to each other their favourite scenes from "Little Women", Hester looked over at Vance who was still quite shaky but her cheeks were pink now and her lips were forming in a little giggle caused by Lily reading out how Jo burnt Meg's fringe, Hester realised how close she and everyone else was to losing this small, quiet yet very precious girl to all of them on that day. She put her small hand under the blanket and found Vance's very own still a bit cold hand and she squeezed it tightly with warm, thankful tears swimming in her eyes.

Vance looked over at Hester and squeezed her hand back just as tightly and with just the exact amount of warm tears in her own eyes as in Hester's, and just like that Hester knew that the bond between her and the girls who were in the same room as her, was stronger than ever before.


	9. The Matter Of Being A Grown-Up

_**Chapter IX**_

"I can't believe that it's January _all_ over again!" Lily exclaimed while playing with her red locks which were matching her red jumper "This year I'll be turning fourteen, _fourteen_! I won't be a child anymore…" she sighed softly and turned her head to the girls laying beside her on Hester's bed.

It indeed was January all over again, yet in a different, brand new year of 1937 and the bosom friends just finished the first week of school after the Christmas break. Hester invited her friends over and suggested to spend a quiet evening with cocoa in their cups and a record of Beethoven playing in the background, and of course all of them agreed with her plan.

That's how Lily, her sister Marion and Vance ended up sitting all together with Hester on her bed, in her room in the House of Dreams while their mothers (Rilla, Faith and Mary) were chatting and chuckling together with Una in the living room downstairs.

Vance got over her accident on the lake back in Avonlea although it wasn't very easy for either her or anyone from her family or friends to actually stop thinking about it for another week after it happened, even though Vance was fine after all. She said she would never go ice-skating again but then was glad that the accident happened on a lake which was _not_ the Lake of Shining Waters so that she didn't spoil its beauty for anyone else.

Both she and her closest friends had never felt so close before the accident than they did after it. They really became an inseparable group ever since the two days before the New Year's Eve. All of them realised what a gift their lives, their friendship and closeness meant for each and every one of them and they knew they couldn't risk losing it for anything in the world. So their group consisting of Hester, Vance, Marion and Lily became known as "The Group" as they were the biggest group of closest friends from the families of Blythes, Merediths, Fords and of course Douglases.

"It does seem very mature to say that you _are_ fourteen years old." Hester said and grinned at her red-headed cousin who sat up and put her feet on Hester's lap "But Lily I can never imagine you being completely mature, even with a husband at your side and a bunch of children holding out their hands towards you."

Lily, Marion and Vance chuckled together and Lily squeezed Hester's hand "I think you're right, but then _how_ can I know that for sure unless I will have a husband at my side and a bunch of children holding out their hands towards me?" she said, but her eyes twinkled.

Hester shared a glance with both Marion and Vance and looked at Lily again "That's true, Lily." she replied "And do you want to have a husband and children one day?" she asked her suddenly and all of the heads in Hester's room looked over at Lily.

"I think so." Lily humphed and put her head on her hand "I mean I _do_ , but then you know when I actually start thinking about _really_ having a husband and children, I get really nervous all of a sudden, and I'm not sure why." she said with her head in the clouds.

"It's because it means you have to grow up, Lily." Marion said and patted her sister's hand gently and the two shared a knowing look.

"We just don't know what being a grown-up means yet." Vance added with a soft grin on her face and a dreamy gleam swimming in her blue eyes.

"I agree with all of you, but then it's nice to dream and imagine things like that." Hester said with a smile dimpling her cheeks "What about _your_ futures? Where do you see yourselves in ten years time?" she asked them excitedly.

The girls looked at each other and grinned with their cheeks reddening as the excitement caused by Hester's question covered them from head to toe. "Gee, I don't know." Lily was the first to say "In ten years time I'll be almost twenty four… _Twenty four_! Can you imagine?" she clasped her hands together and sighed contetedly with the girls around her giggling "I know that I will be after graduating from Redmond, although I'm not sure what I want to graduate from yet, and I want to have a real job, maybe I'll become a lawyer? What do you think about me being a lawyer?" she asked her friends.

"I think that would be brilliant, Lily." Vance and Marion said together and Hester nodded to agree with them and Lily chuckled to herself.

"That would be _so_ thrilling!" Lily exclaimed "Just think about that?" and then suddenly, she turned her head to the girls sitting next to her "And what about the rest of you? Vance?" she asked the blonde-haired beauty.

Vance's cheeks flushed with pink but her thin lips formed a sweet smile "I haven't really thought about my future yet." she said shyly.

"Oh, come on Vance you must have, a little bit at least." Lily encouraged her by taking her hands in her own "Marion here," she nodded at her younger sister sitting next to Hester "-I'm sure she will become an artist one day."

Marion's cheeks flushed with red all over again but her eyes started to dance and all the girls around her chuckled merrily "Oh, Lily how can you say that I will become an artist when I'm only learning by myself right now." Marion said eventually.

"But Marion your drawings and paintings are beautifully done." Hester squeezed Marion's hand assuringly "Everyone thinks so and I have a feeling that you yourself do too." she winked at her and Marion grinned back.

"I must say that it would be wonderful if I did become an artist one day, or an art teacher." Marion said a little more excitedly "I would love to teach little children how to draw and paint."

The rest of the girls looked at each other and shared their knowing and jolly glances "And so you shall do just that, Marion sweetie." Lily said to her decidedly "Go on Vance, you must think a little bit about what you want to do in ten years time. I'm sure of it!" she patted Vance's hand eagerly and made her smile back at Lily's shining face.

"Well," Vance said softly "-I think I would like to go to Redmond one day. But then I know that my parents won't have enough money to put all three of us through college so…" she sighed gently and even though her blue eyes filled with a small amount of disappointment, they turned glossy again as she looked up at her friends once more "-either ways I wouldn't mind working in an office in the end."

" _Yes_!" Lily said excitedly again, her heart filled with her mother's spirit "I am so glad that we are finally a generation of women who _will_ want to and be able to work and not stay at home all day long."

Hester smiled radiantly at her "I agree with you, we should honour all of the suffragettes and women fighting for our right to become whoever we want to in the future." she said eagerly as well "In ten years time I want to become a music teacher or maybe, but just maybe be in an orchestra too?" she said suddenly shyly.

Lily, Marion and Vance gasped in unison and reached for Hester's hands "You could be a composer, Hes!" Lily said to her.

"Of course I wouldn't, Lily, not in just ten years time!" Hester chuckled but her little heart started to pound faster at the very thought.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that Hester, with your _big_ talent!" Lily said again and then looked at Marion and Vance "What do you think, girls?" she asked them.

"I think you could become a composer in ten years time." Marion agreed and she and Hester shared a smile.

"I believe in you too." Vance added and she too exchanged smiles with Hester who was a picture of hopefulness in that moment.

"Oh, that would be so beautifully wonderful!" Hester sighed at last and all the girls laughed together.

"Say, girls," Lily's eyes brightened up even more and all the girls looked at her with interest "-why won't we swear to each other that we will never marry, and instead will have our own careers, live together and simply enjoy our lives as old maids taking care of each other and… maybe our future dogs and cats?"

Hester smiled, Vance's cheeks reddened, Marion's eyes shone and Lily clasped her hands together, chuckling merrily. "I think it's a splendid idea." Hester said jolly while taking Lily's and Marion's hands in hers.

"I agree." Marion said.

"I too." Vance added.

"Well, so do we all promise not to marry, _ever_ , and always take care of one another instead?" Lily said once more, her scanning eyes falling on each of the girls every single second.

"I promise." Hester, Vance and Marion said as one voice.

"And so do I." Lily said as decidedly as them and she gasped again "I'm so excited for the future _now_!"

That's how the whole room started to shake from laughter and then from dancing and singing of course just as well. The ladies sitting downstairs stopped their conversation and listened to the noise coming from upstairs which wasn't annoying or distracting at all. Instead of being angry at the girls who were louder than usual, the women smiled at each other.

"I sometimes miss being a small girl myself." Faith said dreamily.

"You know what, Faith, I don't think that a person can truly grow up, entirely especially." Rilla replied suddenly "Don't you all think that we indeed are the same as we were at fifteen years old?" she asked the women sitting at her table.

"Well, I wouldn't be so sure about that, Rilla." Mary said doubtfully "I think that I couldn't be any less or any more grown-up than I am right now."

"Oh, Mary…" Faith waved her hand and sighed helplessly "I agree with you, Rilla, now that I think about myself being fifteen years old again, I don't think that my personality was very different from the personality I possess now when I'm… fourty two years old." she whispered the last bit of the sentence and the women around her chuckled together.

"What do you think, Una?" Mary asked her dearest friend who sat next to her quietly sipping her tea.

"I think I agree with both of you, somehow." Una answered her in her soft sweet voice "When I think of myself as a fifteen year old and a person I am today, many years later of course, I think that I haven't changed so much but life taught me many things and it makes me a _bit_ more grown-up than I was at fifteen years of age." she said eventually and grinned at her friends smiling back at her.

"You always know how to satisfy everyone without hurting their feeling, Una, darling." Faith squeezed her sister's hand tightly "But I still hope that our girls won't grow up at all, or even if they will, then give them at least ten more years to do that." she said and smiled knowingly at Rilla, Mary and Una who smiled back at her, because in their hearts they were all rejoicing that the girls upstairs were still their little, not grown-up girls.


	10. A New Kindred Spirit

_**Chapter X**_

It was February, the snow was still laying peacefully on the ground and everything around it too, the wind was still freezingly cold and the children of Glen St Mary and Four Winds still enjoyed building snowmen and playing in the white fluffy "stuff" as some of them called it.

Hester was never a big admirer of snow, she didn't love it in the same way every other of her cousins did, she didn't enjoy snow fights and building a snowman as much as everyone else around her did. She preferred to sit on the windowsill in her room with a hot tea in her hands, a good book in her lap waiting for her to be read and she much preferred to take glimpses of the snow behind the window from time to time instead of being outside and playing with it.

That's why she wasn't in the "depths of despair" when she had to stay after school one Friday evening instead of going with Lily, Marion, Vance and all of her cousins and brothers to Rainbow Valley to "enjoy the snow together". Hester participated in a History project about the Crimean War which had to be finished at the end of that day, and it had to be finished at school and not in the cosy room of Hester's.

Hester enjoyed History. She enjoyed all of her subjects, to be quite honest, maybe apart from Mathematics and everything which concerned this brain-exhausting subject. She was indeed in the top of each of her classes and she never was in the Toronto school, she and her parents thought that it might be because she didn't have any friends at the Toronto school and therefore she didn't really have much motivation to study as much as she did in the Glen school, where she had three very close friends.

Hester stayed at school then, she was working hard on her project and although the topic was quite full of violence and not extremely pleasant to learn about in some ways, she found it quite fascinating and she was _especially_ interested in the information she found about the role of Florence Nightingale in the Crimean War which completely blew her mind and from the day she read all about her accomplishments she said that Miss Nightingale was her everlasting and etheral role model.

When she finished the project and found out that somehow she was disappointed that it _was_ finished, she put on her hat, her coat and her gloves and took a deep breath of the warm air of the inside of the school before she came out to the cold.

"Oh, thank goodness! I thought you would _never_ come out then!"

Hester jumped and thought that her heart jumped to her very throat. She turned her head to her left, her hand on her chest and cheeks flushed and finally sighed a sigh a relief while seeing a familiar yet not entirely liked by her person standing in front of her " _Phillip Jones_! What do you think you're doing?" she asked him, anger still ringing in her voice.

Phillip put a curl of his blonde hair under his hat and grinned at her "I was waiting for you." he replied jolly, his cheeks red from the cold air "I knew you had to finish this History project and I thought that that was a good moment to wait to ask you something."

Hester humphed at him and started to walk, her books in her arms and her nose up high. When it came to Phillip Jones Hester was _not_ a timid girl, she was quite the opposite but for a reason too. Ever since Phillip started the Glen school all those four months before, he was constantly teasing her literally every single day. Whether it was calling her names like 'crow' or 'wren' or just 'stuck-up', or it was pulling her braid or sticking his tongue out whenever Hester looked at him. After some time Hester even got bored because of Phillip's teasing, rather than hurt, but nonetheless Phillip was still able to come up with a new joke or a technique to cause Hester's face to turn red from fury, however she never let the fury get to her entirely so all she ever did was to ignore him and she advised her brothers to do the same.

"Ask me _what_ exactly?" Hester asked Phillip who was behind her, trying to catch up with her walking as fast as he could.

"Could we _please_ be friends, Hes?" Phillip asked her eventually, his tone so full of emotion that Hester became absolutely confused by it, especially when she turned her head to face him and saw that his brown eyes really did reflect the truth in them.

" _Friends_?" she repeated, her pride and the blood of Blythes burning beneath her skin "After all those tricks you play on me every single day? I think you _yourself_ should think it ridiculous." she turned her head and looked at the road again.

Phillip sighed heavily "I knew you would say this." he said dully and then turned his head again to face her "But you know why do I tease you so much? Do you know the reason behind all this?" he asked her hopefully.

Hester looked at Phillip for a moment "I don't think there's ever a reasonable answer to a question why a person teases someone else, it's simply _not_ acceptable to tease anyone for _any_ reason." she put her head up high and for a second, if any of the old friends of Anne _Shirley_ like Diana or Anne's very own husband Gilbert would see Hester in that very moment they would have agreed that even though Hester didn't look like her grandmother at all with her coal-black hair, hazel eyes and fair and smooth skin; she was a picture of Anne Shirley when she put her head up high like _that_.

Phillip smirked but he put his hands to the pockets of his coat nervously "Well, you're right of course." he said finally "I shouldn't have teased you at all, I know it now." that's where Hester raised her eyebrows although she still didn't dare to turn her head and look into the eyes of Phillip who watched her face all the time "But the reason I did it is… I…" he sighed again and because of the melancholy sounding in his voice, Hester eventually turned her head towards him and it definitely cheered him up because he instantaneously grinned at her "From the moment I saw you I knew you were different from all the girls in the entire school and I didn't know how to start talking to you, especially because that would seem a bit weird to talk to a girl instead of another boy on the first day of school." Phillip explained and Hester noticed how his already quite red cheeks turned even redder.

She slowed down her pace and then eventually looked into Phillip's expectant eyes once more "I suppose it was hard for you to tell me this." she muttered eventually.

Phillip only nodded "Not as hard as it is for me to see you looking so angrily at me." he added.

Suddenly, Hester turned to her own more timid and shy person she was and stopped walking altogether. She started to feel a little guilty that she caused him such distress. She laughed on the inside, if she would have thought a day before that just on the next day she would feel guilty over causing _Phillip Jones_ to feel sad because of her, she wouldn't believe it at all.

But she did feel sorry for him, because she also remembered the story of how her grandfather Gilbert tried and tried to make friends with grandma Anne when they were both at school and how terribly he felt whenever she was giving him a cold eye.

That's why Hester's heart felt warmer towards Phillip and she smiled at him sweetly, in her own usual and kind way everyone in the Glen school knew about. Phillip almost jumped from happiness however he stopped himself. Nevertheless he couldn't hide the wide and radiant smile which appeared on his face and somehow brightened it up as if the sun started to shine upon it, although it didn't. "I'm not angry, Phillip." Hester said kindly "And I am gladly accepting your offer on being friends with you." she smiled at him lightly.

Phillip chuckled because he simply didn't know how to express how relieved and joyful he was at that moment, but somehow Hester knew how he felt, just in time to realise that Phillip was in fact her new kindred spirit and that first appearances can be deceptive.

"I am so _so_ happy, Hester!" Phillip put his arms around laughing Hester and hugged her tightly "I promise that you _won't_ regret it!"

When Phillip finally released Hester from his embrace, she chuckled again "I certainly do hope that I won't." she said with laughter in her voice "Because if I will, you _do_ know my brothers Selwyn and Gilbert, right?" she said with a raised brow and Phillip laughed a little.

"Yes, I do and I wouldn't even try to do anything to come face to face with them once I did something to make you angry with me all over again." he replied and when the two of them started walking together once more, he turned his head to look at Hester "I'm truly sorry, Hester, I _really_ mean it."

"I know you do." Hester said cheerfully while strolling along her newly made friend "It's so nice to find a new kindred spirit, isn't it?" she asked him, her face grinning.

"Rather realising that you knew that kindred spirit for a long time already." Phillip said but he smiled nonetheless.

Hester's cheeks flushed with pink all of a sudden "You're right," she agreed with him timidly "-but I'm glad that I realised it sooner rather than later."

Phillip looked at Hester, Hester looked at Phillip and they both smiled at each other, and the first knowing glances were shared between them, beginning a friendship which neither of them ever expected to happen.


	11. First Day Of Spring

_**Chapter XI**_

19th March 1937

Dear Dad,

I am so happy to hear that you're enjoying the views of Scotland with Auntie Peris and Uncle Carl by your side but I can't help wishing that I was there with you, and Mother, and Selwyn with Gil too of course.

But then the greatest news is that you finally told us when you're coming back to us, dearest Daddy! This October we will all be _together_ again! Daddy, I _can't_ express how happy I am for you coming back to us eventually! And answering your question, of course I will play for you "Waltz of Flowers", and it makes me very happy that you listen to it from time to time as well.

If you want to know more how excited we are for your coming back home there it is: Gilly cleaned his room as soon as we got your telegram (Mum was asking him to do so for two months almost but with no response), Selwyn is smiling all the time, Mum sings "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" whenever she's in the kitchen and dances with all of us when we least expect it. And me, well _you_ know me Dad, I can't stop thinking about the time when I will see you at the train station in October.

But I have to stop thinking about it (unfortunately) when I go to school, do homework and meet up with my friends. That reminds me that I am supposed to tell you more about how Phillip and I are getting along.

It's been almost three weeks since I agreed to be his friend and since then he has joined our group consisting of Vance, Marion, Lily and me. Yes, Phillip is the only boy in our group and yes, he does spend most of the time at breaks at school and after school with us girls but he still has one other friend, Jared, with whom he always sits on every lesson and walks his dogs with him every evening.

You might wonder why Phillip spends more time with us girls than his friend Jared… You see, Phillip _is_ very much like a boy, he teases all of us (although we know now that it's just for "fun") everyday, loves going fishing and doing sports but he also likes to talk about different things sometimes (he reminds me a bit of Selwyn because of that) and he says that it's easier to talk with us girls rather than boys. I like that about him, and so do Lily, Vance and Marion.

Lily and Phillip get along just fine, they have a similar personality I think, but I also noticed that both Marion and Vance really like him and he likes them back, even though they don't talk as much as Lily and I talk with Phillip.

I have a feeling that you will like Phillip, Daddy. Mum really likes him and says that that's because he reminds her of grandad Gilbert.

Oh, I can hear that Auntie Una just came in and she and Mum are supposed to bake sponge cake and brownies for tomorrow as we are going to celebrate the first day of spring, idea suggested by Selwyn of course. He always comes up with the most wonderful ideas, doesn't he?

Now I really have to go, I can hear Mum going up the stairs and calling my name.

I love you very _very_ much, Dad.

I'll see you soon.

Your loving daughter and a friend,

Hester

* * *

The first day of spring brought the first soft breeze which actually didn't feel as cold as it did just a day before. Selwyn even whispered to Hester that he thinks that it's the sign that the trees come back to life and prepare themselves to bloom all over again, like they did a year before.

Rilla put Hester's hair in a braid and was amazed by how long it got after she trimmed her hair just a few days before she took Hester and her brothers to live in the House of Dreams. Not only because of that she was amazed for Hester had grown so much during those few months while they stayed in Four Winds. She opened up her soul to her newly made friends she thought she would never meet, her face somehow got even smoother and eyes more twinkling.

Rilla smiled as she watched Hester walking arm in arm with Selwyn in front of her and her oldest child, Gilly, with his arm around his mother's own shoulder. She thought about how Ken would react when he would come back to Canada and see his only daughter grown up so much.

But then not only Hester had grown during those months, it was also Selwyn and Gilbert too. Selwyn started to smile more and laugh along with his older brother with whom he could never quite communicate and they were now unseperable whenever without their friends next to them.

Gil got suddenly taller, his chin was more pointy and shoulders wider. Nobody could say that he was still a child, that wouldn't be the truth at all. Whenever any of his family saw him walking along with his best "pal" Marshall, they could only sigh and say that they already were past their childhood.

Somehow Rilla wasn't as melancholic over it as she thought she would be when she was thinking about this particular day one happy afternoon when Gil was just old enough to play with Ken in passing the ball while Selwyn played quietly with his own toys, his back resting against Rilla's foot and finally little baby Hester playing with Rilla's auburn locks with her chubby little hands. Rilla was proud, _that_ 's what she felt, she was proud of her children's accomplishments and dreams and she was swimming in joy whenever she was realising that they were still not old enough for many other things connected with adulthood.

Rainbow Valley was already blooming and the magic in the air could be felt so clearly that Hester thought that a thrill passed through her as soon as the wind started blowing through her hair. "Hes! _Yoo_ hoo!" Lily shouted out joyfully when she noticed the Ford family coming between the trees with baskets full of cupcakes, cookies and lemonade for everyone.

Hester chuckled when she saw Lily, Marion, Vance and Phillip running straight in her direction, all of them barefooted "What's with not wearing any shoes today?" she asked them curiously as soon as they reached her.

"How else would you like to feel that even the grass is in the spring's mood today, eh?" Phillip asked her while grinning mischievously.

The girls surrounding Phillip giggled together and looked at their funny bare feet standing on the green grass "Come on Hester, let's talk about this new piece you are learning for your cello." Lily took Hester's arm in her own and then Hester took Vance's in her other and all her friends started to walk slowly towards their small spot underneath the White Lady where the blanket was already set.

"Do tell, Hester." Vance and Marion said at the same time, sharing their knowing smiley glance.

"Why didn't I hear that you are starting to learn a new piece?" Phillip immediately asked Hester with a raised brow.

"Oh, Phillip," Hester smiled at him gently "-you know that when we girls are together we have our own secrets too." she said and although Phillip felt a bit disappointed he couldn't help the urge to smile back at the sweet and honest grin of Hester's.

"Well then?" Lily asked Hester expectantly.

"I will tell you all about it in time." Hester said excitedly as they finally settled down on the blanket underneath the White Lady "You see I had it all planned out for today and I brought a record with the piece I am learning now as well as a record my wonderful dad sent me yetsterday in the post, a record I was looking for for ages and ages. I lent it to auntie Una yesterday so we just have to wait for her to come." her cheeks turned pink and her lips formed a delightful smile to which everyone around her responded with their own.

"That is really exciting." Marion said jolly.

"I'm glad that it's not just me who thinks so then." Hester grinned at her quiet friend "But can you all believe that it's spring now? It's my first spring spent on the Island." her eyes started to sparkle.

"Mine too." Phillip added and he and Hester shared a knowing glance.

"I can't wait for all the trees to blossom." Vance said dreamily.

"Me too." Lily and Marion echoed together.

"Somehow I can never truly miss winter." Hester said again "Even though I _do_ love Christmas."

"I certainly won't miss this winter." Vance said quietly, her eyes looking at her pale small hands remembering one afternoon before New Year's Eve which everyone around her would always remember till the end of time.

The girls looked at Vance and immediately Lily put her arm around Vance's shoulders and Hester squeezed her right hand and Marion her left. Phillip looked at the picture in front of him and smiled to himself, that was another reason why he preferred to spend his time with girls rather than boys; they were never ashamed to show their feelings and emotions to one another.

"I have a feeling that this spring will be even more wonderful than the previous one because our little group has gained two new kindred spirits." Lily looked at Hester and Phillip with twinkling eyes.

Hester looked at Phillip and they both chuckled together "I do hope that with each spring we will come to the conclusion that it is better than the previous one." Phillip said "It would be such a nice thing, wouldn't it?"

"Let's hope it will be like that." Lily said merrily.

"It would so wonderful if each season could be felt like the compositions of Vivaldi…" Hester said dreamily, her eyes closed and all of her friends sitting around her knew that her head was full of music in that moment, although it always was anyway.

"Hello to you dear children of the Rainbow Valley." a sweet voice filled the spring air. The girls and Phillip turned their heads and saw that Una was coming down the lane in her flowing white dress which made her look exactly like she did when she was just seventeen years old.

"Hello auntie." Hester smiled knowingly at Una who held a record in her hand.

Una smiled back at Hester in her timid way "Hello, darlings." she said to all the children sweetly "There's your record, Hester." she gave the record to the black-haired girl's hands "It's truly a wonderful mix, dear. I was lost for the whole afternoon." she said with shiny eyes.

"I'm very glad." Hester replied joyfully and stood up quickly "I will put it up then." she said and hopped away for a second.

Just like that, the music of a cello and a piano filled the whole Rainbow Valley and Hester came back to her group with an angelic expression on her face ""The Swan" by Camille Saint-Saens." was she could and had to say before she sank down on the blanket next to Lily and Vance "I can't wait to learn how to play the entire piece." she breathed out with her eyes closed again.

Her friends looked at her face, smiled and just like her: just closed their eyes and listened to the rest of the piece in total concentration which was so peaceful and calm it matched perfectly with the mood of the piece filling the air. When "The Swan" ended, Lily grasped Hester's hand and squeezed it tightly "I've never heard a more beautiful piece, Hes." she told her.

"I'm glad to hear that." Hester said and before she could say anything else, a new song popped up, the one that Ken sent to his daughter as soon as he found it while staying in London for a few days.

"Oh!" Hester said merrily "Listen to this too." she told her friends and the "Waltz of the Snowflakes" from the Nutcracker could be heard all over the Rainbow Valley. Suddenly Gil appeared next to Hester with his hand spread out towards her and a funny grin dimpling his cheeks "May I have the honour?" he asked her and Hester gasped with delight.

"Yes, you may, dear Gilly." she said to him and took his hand swiftly. The two siblings took a few steps away from the White lady and Gil put his hand on Hester's waist and Hester put her hand on his shoulder and let him waltz her through one of her most beloved records.

Everyone started to follow their steps with their eyes, steps which were surprisingly very graceful and enjoyable to watch. Hester laughed, Gil chuckled and smiled all the way through. The people, both older and younger, looked at them with twinkling eyes and smiles on their faces. In this moment there was no person in the Rainbow Valley who was not happy to their fullest. And what else can you possibly expect from the very first day of spring in the new fresh year?


	12. Oh, The Changes

_**Chapter XII**_

March almost immediately turned into April and April soon after became May and the month of May was the month when Hester's family arranged a birthday party celebrating Hester's thirteenth year on the Earth.

When Hester woke up in the morning as a year older she couldn't quite believe it. "Thirteen years old", it sounded mature to her somehow, even though she herself was quite mature for her age ever since she started talking.

Hester took her time to go over to her old dressing table and then started to brush her long black hair. She looked into the mirror and gazed at the young girl looking right back at her. Who will she become? Hester thought to herself. _She_ knew, unlike most of the children her age, that she was just at the beginning of her life and that thousands of memories are still waiting for her to be made in years to come.

Hester brushed her hair and smiled at her own self in the mirror as she really did feel special on this day of days and she decided on one thing she would do for her family on that day, she knew that she was finally ready.

When she put a ribbon in her hair and a small daffodil behind her ear she went over to her wardrobe and picked the dress she knew she wanted to wear on her birthday the day she got it from her father, two days before that day, which was Ken's present to his daughter. It was a navy blue dress with a laced neckline and _puffed sleeves_ reaching her elbows. A belt in a lighter colour of blue was around her slim waist and two small pockets were resting gracefully underneath it. It was truly the most fashionable dress Hester has seen in her whole life.

She stood in front of the mirror again and chuckled "Those puffed sleeves!" she said to herself in amusement "Grandma Anne will be laughing at them too." and she took her cello case in her hand and walked downstairs where she knew she would find her mother and her brothers waiting for her to eat breakfast together. When Hester came downstairs and stood in front of her closest family the room went silent instantly.

Rilla put down the tray with hot tea and clasped her hands together, her eyes dancing upon seeing her daughter wearing the dress she advised Ken to find and buy for her birthday. Gilly smiled from ear to ear and whooped upon seeing his younger sister looking so beautiful. Selwyn raised his head from the "Sherlock Holmes" book he was reading and quickly put it down on the table, his own lips turning into a delightful smile.

Hester's cheeks flushed with red and she held on tighter to the cello case in her hand "Good morning everybody." she said eventually, smiling sweetly.

"Good morning, my dear _thriteen_ year old daughter." Rilla said in disbelief and kissed both of Hester's cheeks "Happy birthday my darling girl." she told her.

"Hear, hear," Gilly stood up from the chair and gave a quick kiss on Hester's cheek as well "Happy birthday, sis." he winked at her and Hester chuckled again.

"May you be always happy, Hester." Selwyn kissed the top of Hester's head and grinned at her gently.

"Yes, because nothing else matters more than being happy." Rilla added and looked down poudly at Hester "Darling you look wonderful." she said finally.

"Thank you all." Hester said to each of the people standing in front of her "And yes, I myself think that this dress makes everyone who wears it look prettier." she looked down at the dress she was wearing with shining eyes.

"It couldn't make _you_ any prettier, Hes." Gilly said happily and winked at his sister again and she smiled at him radiantly.

"Hester, why do you hold your cello case?" Selwyn asked her suddenly and everyone's gaze wondered off to the big brown case held by Hester.

"I decided to play for our family for the first time." she announced decidedly "I think it's about time."

Rilla squeezed Hester's hand "That will be so wonderful, dear." she said to her "Everyone will be delighted to hear you play."

"I hope so." Hester replied with wonder in her voice.

"Of course they will, and now, dear," Rilla walked behind the table spreading her arms to show her daughter all the different plates with pancakes and eggs that stood on the table's surface "-here's your birthday breakfast because you do need energy for today which I am sure will be just splendid."

Just like that, Hester put down her cello case, her lips formed into a bright smile and she sat down next to her hungry brothers and her proud mother, and she knew that indeed this day would be a wonderful memory to her.

* * *

Ingleside was once again full of Blythes, Merediths, Fords and Vances, including Phillip of course. Hester was quite disappointed that her grandmother Leslie and grandfather Owen couldn't make it but they were in a whirl of publishing Owen Ford's new book so she couldn't and wouldn't complain about it, especially because they 'phoned her up an hour before the party started.

The party was held as Hester requested in the old Rainbow Valley and Hester was surprised by her family as when she stepped into the valley her eyes caught the colourful ribbons and balloons being all over the place, on and next to each of the trees there. Hester then received lots of presents, bigger, smaller, more and less useful but all just as meaningful to her kind heart.

Jo said that she had too much homework to do to prepare anything for Hester and asked her cousin for forgiveness with her fluttering eyelashes. Hester of course forgave her although it hurt her to see that Jo still continued on acting coldly towards her, and the mystery behind her actions was still as much of a secret as it was from the moment she arrived at Four Winds almost a year earlier.

Marshall gave Hester a pack of cookies and, surprisingly, a pencil which was definitely quite worn out. A card attached to the pack of cookies said: "Cookies because they're _never_ anything else but good, _the_ pencil because one day you will be over the moon to have a pencil once belonging to a great artist. Happy birthday, kid.". Marshall then chuckled at Hester while she was reading the card and nudged her at the side before hopping back to his friend Gilly.

Hester didn't know what to think about _that_ , and she certainly didn't appreciate that Marshall still continued on calling her a "kid" and earlier that day a "baby" now that she was a whole year older! That was simply unacceptable! She shook her head over Marshall's nicknames for her, and instead announced that she will play something for her family and friends. Everyone excitedly took their seats in the sunny Rainbow Valley and looked at each other with mirth in their eyes.

Hester's hands started to tremble a little when she took a cello in one hand and a bow with her music notes in the other. But when she saw her mother smiling at her assuringly, her friends giggling cheerfully and waiting patiently for her to settle down, her grandparents holding hands and looking proudly at her too, Hester smiled lightly and sat down on her chair facing her audience, her _first_ ever big audience.

She hurrumphed quietly, put her bow on the strings, looked at the notes, and off she went as smoothly as if she was _born_ playing Bach's Cello Suite No.1 Prelude, a definition of the magic of the cello.

As soon as Hester started to play, her audience went completely silent because everyone was enchanted. It seemed to all of them as if they just stepped out of their old world for a moment and the only world around them was the music Hester's hands were producing. After a few moments Hester closed her eyes and her family and friends knew that she knew this composition by heart. Her face presented a perfect definition of peace and passion at the same time. Her lips were smiling, her hair flying around her shoulders being touched by the warm May's breeze and her hands were swiftly jumping from one string to the next one.

When she finished everyone jumped up from their seats and started to cheer and clap their hands. Hester giggled and bowed in front of them. She realised that even Jo was standing and clapping, never mind that her face was a bit annoyed. Marshall too was clapping but Hester ignored his small boyish smirk on his lips too. In that moment the only thing that mattered to her was that she defeated one of her greatest fears and she realised with a jolly heart that indeed that was the most wonderful gift she got on that day.

* * *

It was late in the afternoon but not as late that Hester's mother didn't allow Phillip to take Hester on a walk along the shore before returning home after the party.

Lily and Marion had to stay at home. Lily remembered that her essay for English was due on this Friday and not the next one; Marion got a headache and with a reluctant look in her eyes told Hester and Phillip that she will not be joining them in their walk along the shore. Vance _had_ to go home, her mother Mary told Hester and looked disapprovingly at Rilla, her eyes telling that she did not understand her by letting her thirteen year old daughter going for a walk so _late_ with a _boy_!

Rilla ignored Mary's gazes and waved her daughter and her friend off with a cheerful "When you get home, tell me whether the water in the ocean is still so cold, Hester!"

So Hester was walking along the shore with Phillip, both of their pairs of shoes in their hands and their feet immersed in the waves which were coming and going softly, a chilly water covering their toes quickly and then evaporating all over again as the warm air touched everything in its reach.

Hester was in her greatest of moods. There was always something a bit melancholic about her, everyone knew that and it _did_ suit her and her personality, but on her birthday that day she was nothing but happy. Her face was simply as radiating as the sun coming behind the horizon.

Phillip walking beside her was jolly too, yet something about his eyes was different on that day. Hester didn't see it because she was very occupied by everything on that day, if it wasn't for playing her cello, talking or laughing with all of her cousins or dancing with her brothers, cousins and Phillip himself, she was dancing among the clouds with soft music notes invading her thoughts.

"I can't believe that this day is over." Hester said suddenly, looking with delight at the glistening ocean spreading in front of her.

"It was rather wonderful, wasn't it?" Phillip replied, his smile faint.

"Oh yes!" Hester exclaimed, as if a different person was inhabiting her body especially for that day "I loved _every_ second of it. The only thing I would change is that I would add my dad to the people who were in Rainbow Valley today." she grinned in her timid, more bashful way "But I know that he will be back in Canada soon so I just have to remember that day as being wonderful with its full capacity."

Phillip only smiled at her dully and continued looking at his feet being covered by another wave.

Hester turned her head to face him and that was when her old self came back to its place in her soul again "Is everything alright, Phillip?" she asked him gently, looking worriedly at his wistful eyes.

Phillip looked up and grinned lightly at her "Yes, it has to be anyway." he replied.

Hester stopped walking and took his hands in her own "Tell me what's bothering you." she said softly.

Phillip raised his head and sighed heavily "I was meant to tell you tomorrow and not on your birthday." he said reluctantly.

"I don't mind Phillip, it will be the next day and not my birthday anymore in just a few hours time anyway." she said a bit more merrily before turning concerned again.

"Well," he took a deep breath once more "-my parents told me yesterday that we are moving back to New York because my father got his job back with a higher salary of course. You know that that was the reason we moved, because my father lost his job that is." Phillip said it all really quickly and when he finished he looked at Hester who was looking at him with her big hazel eyes.

"You're _moving_ … back to New York?" she asked him eventually, her hands trembling a bit.

Phillip took her hands in his swiftly upon seeing consternation on her white face "Yes but Hes," he said gently "-we will _still_ be friends. I would never abandon you like that. We will write letters and I will be coming back here for summer to visit my auntie you know. It will be fine, it will be fine." he repeated assuringly, a small grin stitched onto his lips.

Hester's eyes suddenly filled with fresh warm tears "But Phillip you won't be _here_!" she breathed out in despair "We just started being friends and it's so so wonderful, and now you will just… go?" she asked him helplessly.

Phillip's shoulders shrunk and he smiled sadly at her "I tried to talk with my parents but they said that they are decided and we're definitely going back a week after school finishes." he said.

Hester's eyes looked into Phillip's and she knew that there was no way of coming back and that he indeed was going back to the States. It was so strange, she would never think a few months earlier that she would feel so dreadfully after hearing that Phillip Jones was leaving Canada. Yet she was truly heart-broken as he became as much of a friend as Vance, Marion and Lily already were. But Hester knew that, like Phillip said, it was not the end of their friendship and that was something that caused her to attempt a tiny smile of hers.

Phillip smiled too, relieved that Hester was slowly growing accustomed to this news "I promise I will write to you every single day." he said and put his arm around her.

"I will write to you too." she whispered and put her head on his shoulder and she realised that he was getting taller each day and she now almost, but still not yet, has to tip-toe to actually reach his shoulder.

Phillip put his arm around her shoulders, Hester put her arm around Phillip's waist and they both walked together along the shore for the next two hours, talking, telling stories and laughing even, although just from time to time. However they both knew that even though they will still have their friendship the distance between the Four Winds and New York will, whether they liked it or not, change their friendship's shape, forever.


	13. So Many Feelings

_**Chapter XIII**_

Dear Diary,

Three hours ago all of us and by this I mean myself, Lily, Vance and Marion said goodbye to Phillip who is moving back to New York today with his parents.

It was a very beautiful day despite all the sadness flying in the air. Phillip organised a picnic for all of us and he was very cross with Jared as he said that he couldn't come because his parents made him to go to his grandma's house for a family dinner today. I told Phillip that he shouldn't blame Jared, it's not his fault after all and Phillip only smiled and told me that he will miss my understanding of all the people around me. When he said that of course I had tears in my eyes and I tried my best to stop my lip from trembling.

All five of us spent the whole day together eating Phillip's mum's famous apple pies and her sandwiches as well. We talked so much today that I still can't quite believe it, I have a feeling that after today we talked about everything friends actually can talk about in their whole lifetimes.

We not only ate today, we also danced together as Philip brought his new portable radio, we were chasing each other on the beach and Phillip went swimming with Lily, leaving Marion, Vance and me at the shore as we didn't quite feel like swimming today. Besides it was a lot of fun watching those two fighting against the waves in the ocean instead.

We then moved our picnic from the beach to Rainbow Valley and we talked most of the time while there. We talked about our dreams, our hopes for the future, _everything_! If Phillip didn't stop Lily in the middle of the sentence we would all start talking about all our cousins and how we would pair them off, marry them off too like we once heard my mum, Lily and Marion's mum and Jo and John's mum doing one evening a few months ago.

It turns out that Phillip wants to become a lawyer and I think that he would be perfect for this kind of job. Lily got all excited as she thinks she might want to be a lawyer too of course.

We also talked about all of our siblings, Phillip sighing that he doesn't have any siblings and any age-related cousins of his own. I don't think I can quite imagine this kind of life, how can I though when I have two brothers and so _so_ many cousins near my age! But Phillip said that he actually doesn't mind, he is used to his life being an only child and not having any cousins near his age, then he smiled and said that that's why he considers all of his friends his age-related cousins or siblings. I thought that was very sweet of him to say so and all four of us hugged him tightly because of that.

I discovered that Vance's brother Marshall is in love with Jo. Vance said that she once accidentally (she would never eavesdrop on purpose of course) overheard her mother talking with Auntie Nan and they both agreed that the two of them, Marshall and Jo, might become a "thing" sooner or later. It seems so strange to me, how sweethearting is already staring in my family and around my group of friends. Of course, Lily and Marion talked about their brother Walt and his "going outs" with Vance's sister Cornelia. Oddly, it seems to me as if the two of them have been in love with each other forever. We girls all laughed together when we saw that Phillip was turning red when we were talking about the sweethearting in our family. But he didn't tell us to stop talking about that, even though he did say that we _cannot_ start talking about matching people up like "old and strange matchmakers".

I then ran with Phillip to Ingleside and asked Grandma Anne if she could give us five baskets because we decided to pick some apples so that Phillip could bring "apples from the Rainbow Valley" with him back to New York. I absolutely loved that idea.

It was a very funny thing when were picking those apples. I was held by Phillip on his strong shoulder (I was surprised by how strong it actually was!) and he was purposely running back and forth to the tree, causing the girls to cry with laughter and me to giggle and my face to turn entirely red from trying to keep my balance at the same time as keeping a straight face, failing in both of those things.

Then it was time for us to walk Phillip back to his small house and say our goodbyes. I don't think that we have ever walked so slowly as a group as we did on our last walk together before saying the horrible farewell today.

I felt as if a chapter in my life was about to close and no other chapter would ever come afterwards. That was until when we reached Phillip's old house and the sun was slowly coming down the horizon behind him, Phillip turned around to face us and said in his jolly old voice: "This is not a goodbye, there will never be a goodbye because there are no goodbyes between friends, _ever_."

In that moment all of us put our hands around him and we stayed like that for a while, listening to the distant sound of waves crashing on the shore, and I thought that after all the waves crashing on the shore in New York must sound the same.

I knew that Phillip was right that there can never be a goodbye between friends, and I eventually felt that indeed it was not a goodbye after all. I knew that we will write to each other, send photographs of each other, Phillip would be visiting from time to time too, not only he has us here but he also has his grandma living in the Upper Glen.

When we broke apart and we all smiled at one another, with all of us having tears in our eyes, smiles on our lips and our hands all linked together, Phillip's mother came out on the verandah and she called out to Phillip: "Darling, I'm sorry to interrupt but we have to get going or we will miss the train!".

So Phillip first squeezed Marion and Vance and they all shared their knowing glances and some whispers were shared as well (I love it how Phillip is so understanding towards both Vance and Marion and to how shy and quiet they both are) between those three. Then he turned to Lily and Phillip twirled her around as she laughed telling him that he's a "mad American".

Finally when Phillip turned to me and my face suddenly turned more sorrowful than it was when he was twirling Lily around just a few moments earlier, Phillip took my hands in his own, smiled into my eyes and bent down to kiss my cheek. I kissed his cheek back and then he hugged me, whispering that he will write to me everyday and I whispered to him back that I would write to him too.

Finally he came back inside his house and after waving at us from behind the window and later being pulled by his mother to help her pack his clothes, all four of us linked our arms together and we started walking slowly down the shore back to the House of Dreams where we knew we would find our mothers sitting together with Auntie Una sipping their tea.

It was a very quiet walk. My cheeks, I could feel, were flushed with red because my mind was overfilled with how Phillip said his farewell to me. Let's be honest, I have no idea what it is to be in love. I don't know yet, and let me get this right: I'm certainly _not_ in love with Phillip, it was just that I have never had any friend who was a boy and not my brother or a cousin at the same time. And I certainly never had a friend who was a boy who would kiss my cheek as a form of "I'll see you soon".

This one soft kiss on the cheek just opened my eyes to something new I suppose. Again, I am not thinking about Phillip in _that_ kind of way, I'm not old enough anyway, I know myself. It's just, it never actually occured to me that yes, I can fall in love one day, I mean it did occur to me but just not in a very realistic way at all. Whenever I thought about it I would think oh, but it will be in ten years time or more or maybe even never. But now I know that I am thirteen years old and that I will be officially an adult in just five years time and that it can happen, it actually _can_.

The very thought makes my heart to beat faster because I have absolutely no idea what to think about it. I didn't talk about it with Lily, Marion or Vance, I didn't talk about it with Mum, with nobody to be exact, I suppose I find this thought a too sweet for me to share it with anyone else just yet. Besides, I _did_ promise my Group that I will _not_ marry and that we will all be old maids living in the same house forever and ever with our own cats and dogs. Even though the idea of falling in love is so very sweet to me, _this_ idea of me and my girls living together for the rest of our lives seems even sweeter for now!

I wonder what I will say when I will read this diary one day when I'll be let's say fifty years old. I'll probably laugh, but... maybe I won't?

My imagination is getting better of me today I think.

I can't wait for Phillip to send me his first letter telling me how he's getting used to New York life once again. I remember him once telling us that when he came here for the first time, he thought as if the silence was even more silent here than the silence he knew before that. He did live his whole life in the very heart of Brooklyn though. I can't say the same thing about my life in Toronto because Golden Bells is located in such a beautiful, silent and a peaceful area… Oh, I _do_ miss Golden Bells sometimes! Is it bad that I don't miss it that often though? I'm not sure.

Gilly doesn't miss Golden Bells at all, he told mum recently. He loves going fishing with his best friend Marshall and he loves and always loved the countryside although it does seem weird that he, the real city boy with his dance steps and funny "slang" he uses all the time, would really love the old, quiet and peaceful countryside. Selwyn however always prefered the quietness of trees and he never liked Toronto life so much and that's why he was spending most of his time under one apple tree in our garden reading or writing, in Golden Bells. I am in-between as I _do_ like the city life but I also really enjoy living here in the quiet and unknown to the rest of the world Four Winds.

I don't even know why I spend so much time thinking about it, well of course I think about it because once Dad is going to come back from Europe we will most probably have to come back to Toronto although… Oh, I don't think I want to! But it's not my decision, it's my parents' decision so I will not say or think another word about it.

For now, today is today and we said goodbye to Phillip who is now probably waiting for his ferry back to New York. He promised me that he will think about our Rainbow Valley once he will be on the deck of the ferry which will lead him away from our Canada for at least another year.

A _year_! It sounds so terribly long and so far away from _today_! So many things can happen in a year's time…

That's it for now, I can't let my imagination get the better of me again. Therefore I will go downstairs and settle down next to Mum who will put her arm around me and Selwyn will allow me to put my feet on his lap while Gilly will put on one of his own records of the "modern waltzes" as he calls them and he will practise his steps like he said he would.

And so, goodnight dear diary and whoever is reading it now in the years to come I wish a good and peaceful night too.

Yours,

Hester Leslie Ford


	14. Definition Of Life

_**Chapter XIV**_

When July came Hester really started to feel that the summer has started. It could be _felt_ , at last. She did feel the warm air and saw how the trees blossomed a whole month earlier but somehow nothing about summer could be felt just yet, it was as if the soul of the summer was stretched out painfully because of the leaving of Phillip and could not come back to its shape for a little while. And it finally did.

When July begun and Hester, Lily, Marion and Vance were invited by Ada to stay at Green Gables for one week, Hester could eventually feel the summer in the air and she was simply delighted and that delight was refelected in her flushed cheeks and shining hazel eyes of hers. So the girls and Selwyn (as he was invited by his friend David) as their "guardian" took a train to Avonlea and when they arrived at the doorstep of Green Gables they all felt the breeze of summer flying around them and the aura of separating from the stressful life at school to mix in with that breeze.

Di and Jack were very welcoming and opened the door to them with wide smiles spreading on their faces. Before anyone knew what to say or do, Ada and David popped their heads from behind their parents and Ada embraced all of the girls she loved and who loved her back and Selwyn shared a brotherly hug with David with the mutual shyness he and David always shared with one another.

"Oh, we will have so much fun together!" Ada exclaimed when she was still kissing Hester's cheek "I have to show you what David and I did in the back of the garden." she then stepped inside the house again and when she realised that nobody quite knew what to do she waved at them hurriedly "Come on you all!" she said.

So the whole big group of young people stormed into the old and ancient walls of Green Gables and quickly ran out to the garden at the back of it, following jolly steps of Ada and David. When they finally saw what Ada wanted to show them, Selwyn looked at Hester knowingly, Lily looked at Marion also knowingly and Vance chuckled with Ada while holding her hand. There was a tree house on the old cherry tree, the Snow Queen once called by a red-headed girl without whom nobody from the people standing in that garden on that day would have existed.

"We shall spend our evenings together there." Ada announced.

"While eating cookies and cakes until we will all turn too fat to move around!" Lily laughed joufully and people around her joined in merrily.

"I wouldn't imagine doing anything else." David said and a small grin filled his jolly young face which looked just like the perfect mixture of Di's and Jack's facial features.

A wave of laughter filled the warm air again and when the Wrights, Blythes, Fords and one Douglas girl started arguing in their funny way who will go up to the tree house first, Di and Jack observed them from behind the window and chuckled together as if their age had suddenly shrunk back to the age of their those happy children themselves.

* * *

" _Hes_ ter, Hes _ter_ , _Hester_ …" Lily sighed with an air of laziness wondering around her "You know that I never actually thought about it before but oh my, I _love_ your name!" she said to the black-haired girl sitting in front of her, their feet playing their own little fight across the floor of the tree house in the garden of Green Gables.

It was the sixth day after the "children of Glen and Four Winds" came to Avonlea for their holidays and therefore it was the last day of their holiday there. It was a glorious evening with the stars spread across the dark-blue sky, a soft wind blowing from time to time as if it carried messages from one tree to another. The tree house was a very bright place at that moment, not just because of the two big candle lights that were put inside it but also because of the bright and jolly people sitting inside the tree house enjoying each other's precious company.

The tree house seemed even brighter when the people inside it laughed merrily together at the statement Lily made. "Why, thank you Lily." Hester said, still chuckling "I do like my name, it isn't plain and it's not too strange either."

"What's wrong with strange names?" Lily replied, her face shining with happiness she always carried with her "I love them even more than the normal names!"

Everyone laughed together again "Would you enjoy being called Green or Blue then, Lily?" asked Selwyn with a small grin of amusment on his lips.

"Why not?" she said and flipped her red curls to the back "I would love to be called a name which nobody apart from me has."

"That's actually a nice idea." Ada agreed "Say, why won't we all put our names on pieces of paper then we will put them in a basket, each of us will take out one piece of paper and will have to think of an unusual or maybe even strange..." she glanced for a moment at Lily who smiled at her radiantly "-names for that person whom we chose and those names will be our own secret names." she smiled with contentment and looked at each of her friends expectantly.

"I think that's a great idea." Hester said excitedly "What does everyone else think?"

"I would like that." Marion said.

"Seems very fun." Vance added with a light grin on her thin lips.

"Let's do it!" Sewyn and David said at the same time.

So that's what they did. Ada ran back to Green Gables and asked her mother for a basket and piece of paper and a pen, she then came back with those and additional cookies Di insisted them to eat. Lily then ripped the paper in seven pieces and wrote down all seven names belonging to each of her friends sitting around her with merry smiles lightening their faces.

Finally Lily put all the pieces of paper into the basket and shook it so they could mix. She then turned her head to face the others and grinned mischievously at them "Ada, since you were to suggest this idea, you go first." Lily said to the red-haired girl sitting beside her.

Ada excitedly took out a piece of paper from the basket "I got… _y_ _ou_ Lily!" she giggled and everyone else followed with cheering, getting excited for the event.

"What name will you give me then, dearest Ada?" Lily asked her cousin with fluttering eyelashes as she laid down on her stomach with her head supported by her hands.

"Let me think…" Ada put her finger on her chin and looked at Lily seriously "You are a person of a lot of energy, you're a red-head with a temper of a red-head at that…"

"Hey!" Lily said and everyone around her laughed.

"You need a name which is strong yet a little bit crazy too." Ada concluded "Let's call you… Emelda!" she announced triumphantly.

Lily's face brightened up and she sat up "Emelda! I _do_ like that name!" she said, her face entranced "Thank you, Ada!" she kissed her cousin's cheek.

"You're very welcome, _Emelda_." Ada replied in a sophisticated way and everyone chuckled once more "You go next then." she said and handed Lily the basket.

"Abracadabra…" Lily said half laughingly half seriously while her hand swam in the basket "Aha!" she said and unfolded a piece of paper "I got... Miss Vance." she looked at her friend with shining eyes who blushed but smiled back at her nonetheless "Well, Vance, you need a name which is soft and sweet and strong too…" Lily thought for a second, everyone looking at her with excitement and interest "I know it!" she exclaimed suddenly and sat next to Vance hurriedly "From now on, dear, you are Felicia." she said, proud of her choice.

Everyone nodded in agreement and Vance's eyes started to twinkle "Oh, Lily I love it!" she said even louder than usually.

"Oh, no, no you must have taken me for a different person, I'm Emelda, remember _Felicia_?" Lily said with a funny raised brow and everyone around her chuckled again.

"Felicia, you go next." Ada said and Lily handed the basket over to her friend.

After about thirty minutes, everyone but Hester got their special, unusual and matching their personality name. Vance picked David and after some advice from everyone around her she decided on "naming" him Luca, and everyone agreed that it suited him perfectly as he really was just as soft and kind as anyone with a name of Luca could be. David then picked Selwyn and the two friends shared their friendly, "kindred-spirity" as Lily would say, glance and David eventually decided on calling Selwyn Atlas because he pointedly thought that Selwyn did have his mind full of everything belonging to the whole vast world, beginning with poetry ending with eagerness for learning more each passing day.

Selwyn of course then picked Marion and it didn't take him long at all to decide for her a name as beautiful as her soul always was, so Marion suddenly bacame knows as Amethyst. Hester knew that Marion would be too nervous to decide on the name for her all alone so she helped her out by suggesting that everyone will think about her own name as she was after all the last person to be "named". As soon as Hester suggested that, Marion smiled at her thankfully and Hester grinned back at her.

Everyone thought and thought, discussions were carried out, jokes and laughter could be also heard and twenty minutes passed without choosing a name for anxious Hester. Why couldn't anyone think of a name for her? Was it because she was already plain, she thought, her pride shrinking down into her small but still wide and kind soul. Of course she could never be plain and that was the very reason why nobody could think of a perfect name for her.

Finally, Selwyn clasped his hands together, his very Selwyn-like smile appeared on his lips and he put his hand on his sister's hands, looking into her eyes deeply "Eilis." he said and almost immediately everyone gasped in delight over how perfect the name was for the very not-plain Hester Ford.

Hester smiled back at Selwyn and squeezed his hands resting on her own "I love it." she said and everyone cheered as if it was New Year's Eve "So do we all call each other those names from now on?" she asked the people around her.

"Obviously not _all_ the time." Lily said "We will call each other those names only when we will all be together like that again, all seven of us, and _only_ us." she smiled at all of her friends.

"It will be our delicious little secret." Selwyn added with sparkling eyes.

"I just love today." Hester sighed contentedly when she put her head on Marion's shoulder and Marion started stroking her black hair with her delicate small hand.

"Me too." Marion whispered back to Hester before the two of them shared their knowing timid smile.

"I have an idea!" Ada said suddenly "It's our last day together before we will see each other on Christmas, and mother and father said that we can stay up till _eleven_ , which _never_ happens of course, and it's only five to ten so maybe we will all go on the roof and watch the stars then?"

Lily excitedly started clapping and said "Yes! Yes" but Hester's face grew worried "Is it safe?" she asked.

"Oh, yes, don't worry." Ada said assuringly "David and I did it many times before and we know how to get on there safetly, dad made a special ramp you know, and…" she drew closer to the middle of the circle and whispered "-about two weeks ago, we even saw both mum and dad sitting on the roof together, talking and laughing, didn't we David?" she asked her brother who smiled at her and admitted that it was true.

"Let's go then!" Lily whooped and that's what they did.

That's how seven friends sat up on the roof together, watched the stars in a perfect night dwelling through the thick summer's air and talked about everything and nothing at the same time.

On that night Hester realised that moments like those, the small little incidents and accidents, are the most perfect and the most memorable memories and they should be treasured the most, more than those grand big moments even. Because grand moments happen just a few times in life and we spend our lifetimes waiting for them whilst those sweet everyday-life accidents and events happen all the time and they are really, like Selwyn whispered into his sister's ear "Ordinarily extraordinary."

And that was the night when Hester, for the first time in her life, realised that she really, and truly, with all her worries and fears and doubts and unknownigness about the world and the future, she loved her life because she knew that the people around her and that one perfect little moment on the roof were a perfect definition of life.


	15. A Decision

_**Chapter XV**_

It seemed not only to Hester but to everyone else too that a day after all five friends came from Avonlea back to Glen, the month of August pushed right through the wide month of July and announced itself loudly.

The days were hot, it hardly ever rained, the sky was almost cloudless and the world was quite literally rejoicing in life itself. Hester spent each day playing her instruments and of course most freqently she focused on playing her favourite cello. She was composing, throwing papers in the bin after crumbling them angrily with one hand holding a pen and the other holding a bow.

Lily demanded that every member of their "Group", meaning herself, Hester, Vance and Marion would meet up each day at the same time in Rainbow Valley and of course she didn't have to ask twice, they all did it with happy and merry hearts of sweet and still very young souls.

They had a lot of talks, laughs, dances and goings to swimming in the ocean too. That summer really did seal their friendship as an everlasting and true to the core and heart of each of their souls. Each of the girls knew that fact well and that was the reason why they could never think that while they were all together something hopeless or simply bad could ever enter their lives, at least at that time of their lives.

That's why on one particular morning at the end of the first week of August Hester woke up as a fresh, jolly girl with her hair messy and her face smooth and a smile spreading upon it as she was stretching out her arms. However almost immediately as she opened her eyes properly she could feel that there was something different about that day. Something quite not normal and everyday-like could be felt in the atmosphere and it almost feared her gentle soul but when she came downstairs and saw her mother all happy with her apron around her waist and saying in her singing tone that there were only _seventy_ days left until Ken would come back home to them, Hester's fears vanished without any hope for turning back.

After breakfast with her mother and brothers, she took her diary and a pen and went outside and sat on the chair on the verandah, enjoying the blissful weather. As soon as Gilly finished eating his toast he took his portable radio and ran out of the house to meet up with Marshall to practise some of the new swing moves Gilly heard about from his one friend in Toronto. Selwyn took his book of poetry and said that he was to meet up with John and Walt in the Rainbow Valley so off he went a few minutes after his brother. Rilla also announced herself to Hester that she is off to visit Una at the orpahange she worked at and so she took her stylish white hat and sunglasses and started walking down the lane towards town.

Hester watched her mother go for a few seconds, a soft smile on her face as she thought that her mother was the most stylish person she knew maybe apart from Jo because well, nobody could compare to Jo's style even though her personality didn't have anything which could be referred to as a style of any kind.

Eventually Hester took a pen in her hand and started writing everything she did a day before as she was too tired from all the swimming she and "The Group" did the day before to actually write everything down in her diary on that day. She was so lost in writing and listening to the birdsong so clear that the whole world around her seemed to blend in with everything, that she didn't hear that there was a car driving along the empty road right towards the House of Dreams.

"I see that _nobody_ missed me when I was away!" a familiar voice filled the warm air as a tall handsome man came out of the car with a wide happy smile spreading over his lips.

Hester raised her head immediately to the sound of _this_ particular voice and she put the diary and the pen on the floor readily, her face radiating with joy " _Daddy_!" she squeaked and ran to Kenneth Ford who stretched out his arms towards her and caught her as he always used to ever since she learned how to walk.

"How could you ever even _think_ that we haven't missed you?" Hester cried into his ear as Ken was kissing her pink cheek.

Ken put his daughter down and looked at her as if he was seeing her for the first time. She had grown, she was beautiful but the he always knew that, she was taller, her face was fuller, her eyes were happier, and something about her grew up too but it wasn't her appearence, Ken noticed it all in a second. He took his daughter's hands in his own and looked into her eyes with delight in his own "I never did as I know that you missed me as much as _I_ missed you all." he replied tenderly and put a strand of her black hair behind her ear, the same colour as his own hair still was.

"But, daddy, how come you came back so early, we were expecting you in October!" Hester suddenly said as she took Ken's hand in hers and led him to the chairs standing on the verandah.

Ken and Hester sat down together and Ken grinned at his daughter again "You see, darling, I was meant to come back in August and not in October in the first place but I was planning this surprise for all of you from the beginning." he said, his voice sounding a bit impishly like from the days of when he was his children's age.

Hester chuckled at her father "Oh, daddy!" she said jolly "You are incredibly marvellous!" she kissed his cheek again and he squeezed her hands once more.

"Where are your brothers and your mother, dear?" Ken asked Hester with excited eyes which wondered off to the door of the House of Dreams.

"Oh, Gilly went to meet up with Marshall, Selwyn is meeting John and Walt and mum went to visit auntie Una at her orphanage." Hester explained "But I'm sure they will all be back for lunch."

"And until then…" Ken smiled merrily at his daughter as he kissed her hand softly "-we will have some time together and we can talk and talk as much as we want."

Hester smiled widely and indeed both she and her father whom she missed more than anything and who missed her just as much, both went for a walk along the shore. Both took off their shoes and walked side by side, Ken talking about the romantic Paris and historic London just after Hester told her dad about Christmas and her "Group" and Phillip and her music too.

They forgot about time and they didn't feel it either, all the months of their separation were suddenly forgotten because the place of their separation was replaced with those precious hours of talking with each other, face to face again. That's why they didn't quite hear when Rilla, Gilly and Selwyn came into the House of Dreams together as Ken and Hester were slowly walking back to their house from the shore.

Rilla came outside from the back, right into the garden and looked in all directions to see where her daughter hid away but when her eyes caught the glance of two figures walking together in the direction of the house, she shouted out cheerfully, her eyes filling up with happy tears "Ken! Oh, _Ken_!" as if she was a young "spider" all over again.

Ken heard the familiar voice which could always make his heart melt and he raised his head and saw his wife running straight to him, holding her big white hat with her hand and holding the edge of her dress with her other hand. Both Ken and Hester chuckled at the sight, and Ken too started to run to Rilla to catch her swiftly in his strong arms only so that he could kiss her on the lips after more than a year of being apart.

Hester laughed and cried when she saw them together again and ran on to wrap her arms around both of them in the same moment as both of her brothers did the same from their parents' back. And so the Ford family was reunited again, the wind blew softly, the sky was cloudless, birdsong was still filling the air and the sound of the sea could be heard far and near at the same time.

In that very moment neither of the Fords could feel any happier if they were all living as gloriously and trouble-free in a palace than when they were hugging each other while laughing and crying together and feeling that suddenly that something that was missing in their hearts for that one year was finally found.

* * *

Dear Diary,

Today I woke up and I thought that yesterday was a dream. I got really terrified because I actually thought that was the case. So I jumped out of my bed quickly and ran downstairs and I saw my very own Dad sitting in his favourite rocking chair with a newspaper in his hands, still dressed in his nightgown and immediately tears started running down my cheeks. Dad put me on his lap, like he always used to, and we both read the newspaper together for the next half an hour and it seemed as if the world couldn't be more perfect.

Today was a day full of all emotions possible for me. After breakfast the mailman arrived with our post and I received a letter and a package from Phillip. He wrote back to my long letter in the equally the same long letter about which I was very happy. The package he sent had his handwritten note attached to it: "I passed this one shop in Manhattan and I saw this and I knew that I had to buy it for you, dear friend of a name Hester". Phillip sent me a beautiful brooch with a small emerald inside it and I _love_ it. Apparently the shopkeeper said that it belonged to her grandmother who found it in Central Park in the early 1800s and I honestly look at that brooch all day long thinking about that woman who found it so many years ago and all the other women who must have worn it before she did and after she did too.

Later, we all went to Ingleside again (as we went there yesterday in the evening too as Dad wanted to make a surprise for everyone) for the family lunch in the garden of Ingleside. Mum went "wild" as Dad said and she prepared millions of different pastries _during the night_ especially for that one lunch today at Ingleside. But it was all delicious.

Lily, Marion, Vance and I obviously talked and laughed together, Jo was constantly talking with Marshall and both of them were whispering something to each other from time to time and later giggling. Vance is feeling a bit uneasy with both of her siblings having sweethearts and "talking in such strange and unfamiliar way" but she is obviously happy for both Cornelia and Marshall.

But there comes the bittersweet news I learnt about today and simply forgotten about yesterday. During dinner Dad and Mum were talking to grandparents Blythe that we are going back to Toronto for the beginning of school year so in September, so in just _three weeks_! Gilly, Selwyn and I sat next to each other paralysed and speechless and we just looked at each other and we all felt the same. Undecided, sorrowful and somehow bittersweet too.

It will be _wonderful_ to go to Toronto again and to live in Golden Bells again, the old and wonderful home of ours, and have grandparents Ford over dinner every two days like we always used to too but… My friends won't be there, House of Dremas will be left in Four Winds, the majority of our family will be left here too… Oh, my heart is rejoicing and it's breaking at the same time!

When we came back home, for the first time in a very very long time, I didn't feel like playing my cello. I was just sitting in my room, sitting on my bed and looking outside the window at the lovely ancient garden of the House of Dreams thinking how can I _ever_ possibly leave this place?

But I know that my Dad has his work in Toronto which he loves very much, and we have our dear home there too, and Grandma Leslie and Grandpa Owen too… Mum and Dad asked my brothers and myself about the decision they made and what we think about it as soon as we came back home today. Gilly said he will be sorry to leave but after all he lived in Toronto most of his life and he wouldn't mind as he still has his friend there. Selwyn only said, absent-mindedly, that he's fine with the decision and I said that I just don't want to decide especially because it's not _my_ decision.

Our parents looked at each other and said that we _are_ moving back to Golden Bells and that all will be fine and that we shouldn't worry as they won't allow it not to be fine. I believe them and that's why I'm slowly warming up to this move… _Very_ slowly though. I didn't talk about it with Marion, Vance or Lily yet, but I will tomorrow and God only knows how they will react to this decision.

That's where I will stop before I will burst into tears… I'm so teary lately I don't know what's wrong with me. I shall be merry and joyful through those three more weeks and I _will_ enjoy every second of them, _that_ 's what I will do instead of crying all over again.

I shall talk to you soon then,

Yours,

Hester


	16. Last Days Of August

_**Chapter XVI**_

Hester didn't sleep well that night. When she woke up she had dark circles underneath her eyes from all the thinking and imagining she went through during the night, the last night before she, her brothers and their parents were supposed to go back to Toronto and just three days before Hester and her brothers were meant to go back to school there too.

Hester started brushing her hair in front of the mirror while she was looking outside the window with her melancholy eyes of a hazel colour. The sun shone straight upon her bare feet and was filling her bedroom with its warmth. She was thinking about all the happy moments she spent in that small bedroom of hers, how she composed her first composition there, how she and her friends laughed together there and her eyes filled with a sudden wave of warm tears which she quickly blinked away. She _did_ promise herself that the tears would not be shed just yet.

It was the day of farewells with her family and friends, with the House of Dreams and with the ocean as well. Hester already went through the farewell with her cello teacher, Miss Posy, who hugged her tightly and said that she had never seen such a young person with such incredible talent and that she wishes her well and if she would somehow return to the Island she would be more than happy to teach her again. Miss Posy's speech made Hester tearful of course but she felt very proud of herself at that moment too.

Rilla and Ken already prepared the garden of the House of Dreams with tables and snacks, pastries, and everything made deliciously by Rilla, Hester and Una who visited the House of Dreams a day before that too. Gilly and Selwyn already talked together on the varandah when Hester stepped into the living room and she smiled lightly at the sight of two of them as she knew that she wouldn't be able to go back to Toronto at all if it wasn't for her brothers.

"Sit next to us, sis." Gil said cheerfully and put Hester in his lap and allowed her to snuggle up in his chest as he put his arms around her protectively "Cheer up, Hes. It's not like _everything_ will be changed." he smiled at her softly and Hester smiled back at him, although with reluctantly.

"I know that not everything, Gil, but _most_ things will change." she replied and felt how Gilly's arms around her tightened up.

Selwyn's hand found its way to squeeze Hester's own hand and the two of them shared a knowing understanding glance. Gil remained silent but Hester could hear how he sighed quietly, the kind of a sigh a person makes when he or she doesn't want to agree with someone outloud.

The silence between the siblings was broken by the shoutings of Lily who was running in front of her parents and her own siblings and in that moment Hester's smile widened as she promised herself that this last day would be the happiest after all not only for her but for everyone else too.

Their whole family has gathered, the Douglas family came too, so did John and Rosemary Meredith with their daughter Una who for the whole evening was talking with Rilla who became an even closer friend of hers during the absence of Ken. There were many evenings, when the children of Rilla were either out "playing" with their friends or asleep upstairs and Una was staying over for a night, when Rilla's fears and doubts about many things connected with the future were said to Una and were kept away for as long as Una's kind words and solace were as a reply to them. This is why the two of them became even closer than before Rilla came to Glen a year earlier, and now their souls were connected forever.

Everyone tried to act as if that one evening didn't mean anything and that it wouldn't change anything at all but even though everyone thought and felt that it wasn't true. When the sunset was getting close to an end and Hester's little "Group" finished their casual conversation which somehow mattered to them the most in that moment even though they were about whatnots really, Hester's eyes filled with sudden and quite expected tears as she turned to Vance, Lily and Marion sitting in front of her "You will write to me, girls, won't you?" she asked them pleadingly, her lower lip starting trembling.

Surprisingly it was Marion who threw her arms around Hester's neck and cried into her ear first of all Hester's friends " _Every_ day, dearest Hester!" she gasped between sobs, dear Marion who was always very sensitive to any changes. Hester hugged her friend tightly and suddenly felt how Vance put her arms around the two of them at the same time as Lily put her arms too from the other side. They made such a bittersweet, lovely picture that everyone's hearts of those who looked at them in that very moment, melted and started to shake at the same time.

Hester knew then, as if she could out run out the future, that she would always remember that small moment and it would always bring her comfort of realisation that she in fact _did_ have friends, something she didn't know she would ever have when she was in Toronto, or at least not as close friends, the bosom kind, which she possessed in that very moment.

Tears ran down not only Hester's cheeks but all of her girls' cheeks as well, although they smiled bravely at each other as they released Hester from their arms. That was when the moment for farewells came and it seemed that especially because of that feeling which could be felt clearly in the air around them, the clouds suddenly covered the sky and blocked out the sunshine entirely.

Hester got a cold hand shake from Jo, as a form of goodbye of course, and the last pull of her long braid from Marshall who smiled at her in his own smirky way and said "So long, _kid_." but just this once, she didn't mind their kinds of farewells, her heart was too full of emotions to mind a cold stare from Jo and Marshall's annoying habit of teasing her whenever he saw her.

When finally Hester, her siblings and her parents were kissed over millions of times and their postures hugged over too, Ken opened his car and he sat in the driver's seat with Rilla sitting next to him and their children behind them. Their windows were open and once Ken started driving, Lily started running with the car and she called to Hester that she shouldn't worry about anything and that she believes that everything will be fine. Hester for the last time squeezed Lily's hand saying she believes in that too and Lily stopped running as she couldn't keep up with the car anymore.

Hester returned to her seat between her brothers who automatically put their arms around her shoulders and Hester smiled bravely once more, really believing in words she just heard from Lily yet still being able to feel how much her heart hurt.

* * *

"I can't wait to be able to sweep Golden Bell's floor again!" Rilla sighed contentedly as her head fell down on Ken's shoulder.

Ken chuckled quietly and kissed his wife's forehead tenderly "And I can't wait to disturb you sweeping the floor of Golden Bells and twirl you around to the sound of our old radio playing in the kitchen." he whispered.

Rilla smiled and looked up into his eyes "I can't wait too." she said and suddenly her smile faded and her eyes wondered off to her three children.

It was foreseeable that during the train ride, especially as long as the one the family of Fords took on that sunny day in August, Hester and her brothers would fell asleep soundly on each other lulled by the soft and gentle movement of the train and the soft rays of sunshine falling onto their young and tired faces.

They made a rather calm and peaceful picture, full of warmth and harmony. Gilly's body was spread along the three quarters of the seat, his back resting against the window of the train and his arms around Hester who slept quietly with her head resting against Gilly's chest, her legs cuddled up together. Selwyn was half-sitting with his hands crossed over the book he was reading an hour earlier and with a soft dreamy grin upon his lips.

Ken looked at his children too, following his wife's gaze and he sighed sorrowfully "Do you think they'll be really fine with going back to Toronto?" he asked his wife.

Rilla sat straight up and put her hands on Ken's "I don't know, dear." she told him "They were so happy when we lived in the House of Dreams. The beginnings, as you know yourself, were really hard of course but then they were just so… wonderfully _happy_ all the time that…" she paused for a moment to look at what she always called "her three miracles" "-that I just am _not_ sure whether they will ever be as happy back in Toronto." she said eventually and her eyes started to gather up fresh tears.

Ken put his arms around her and kissed her nose "We have to try this plan out, Rilla darling, you know that." he said while looking into her eyes "I know that it will be difficult for them to come back to their normal lives back in Toronto but I also think that after time they will adjust to it again." he grinned at her reassuringly but Rilla's face didn't change and still remained serious and worried.

"Ken, you didn't see them during that time, _I_ did." she said to him "Hester made friends, _real_ friends eventually. Selwyn stopped being too dreamy as he always used to be because he too had real friends back in Glen, and Gilly was out of the house all the time and I didn't mind for the first time in my life because I knew he was meeting up with his best friend, his _only_ best friend." Rilla smiled gently at her children and then looked in Ken's eyes again "I am just scared they won't be so joyful in Toronto."

"I understand, dear wife of mine." Ken caressed her cheek and glanced at the three children of his too "But we have to keep hoping that it will be fine and if not, we'll think of something then, I promise you that." his eyes were serious and sweet at the same time, the combination of feelings Kenneth Ford's eyes learnt to express when his first child was born.

Rilla relaxed a little as she sighed a sigh of relief and smiled more happily at her husband "Good." she said finally and when they both smiled at each other again, Rilla put her head on his shoulder and Ken put his arm around her while he corrected the blanket over Selwyn's knees with his other hand.

"It will all be fine." Rilla whispered suddenly.

"It must be." Ken agreed "We both faced much more terrible things, and while being apart at that." he said and he and his wife shared a knowing glance again, different memories from more than twenty years earlier came back flashing through their heads until they vanished again.

"We can go through this." Rilla added decidedly "And we _will_."

Ken smiled again and both he and Rilla started looking at their three children, their eyes filled with fear over what terrible or even just unpleasant might happen in their lives one day, not even of how they would react to their lives back in Toronto but in the whole of their lives. But both Rilla and Ken knew that their children would never be alone while facing those days, they would always have both of them as their guards and somehow that thought made both Mr and Mrs Ford feel just a slightly bit happier and a a tiny bit more hopeful for their futures.


	17. A Grain Of Hope

_**Chapter XVII**_

Dear Diary,

It's officially the end of October as it is the last day of this autumn-month today and I feel like doing nothing but to write in here because I know that I have been delaying writing in this diary for a long time, almost a _month_ now! I just simply wasn't in the mood for writing, I wasn't in the mood for many things actually. Ever since we came back to Toronto I don't feel like myself, not exactly. It feels as if the last time I saw Prince Edward Island was at least three years ago and not three _months_ ago and it hurts, oh so much.

I am _so_ happy, and I'm saying the truth, I am very happy that we live in Golden Bells again. I just love this house of ours, it's so big and it's so nice inside, the garden is so full of memories and it is so spacious... I have almost forgotten how wonderful and _ours_ this whole place is.

I was very joyful for the first few days after we all came back to Toronto from Four Winds. My brothers and I took a few hours long trips to the town centre with Grandpa Owen adn Grandma Leslie. Grandpa Owen took the boys fishing (eventually ending fishing only with Gilly as Selwyn was writing a new poem at the same time) and Grandma took me for shopping and then she bought such fabulous and extremely fashionable new shoes and two hats for me that I was wearing them _all_ for the entire next day while at home (two hats at a time of course as I couldn't get enough of them and I couldn't decide which one I prefered to wear).

It was all wonderful until the school began again and I had an epiphany that I don't have either Marion, Vance or Lily next to me in each lesson or break. In fact I have _no one_ next to me during the whole day at school.

I came back and I _knew_ that I didn't have any friends at school here but I at least hoped that the two girls who were always willing to let me spend some time with them during lunchtime (Polly and Jess) would let me talk to them again. I don't know why I thought that would happen… I sent them each a letter almost as soon as I came to Glen last year (they asked me to do so) and neither replied. I could have at least prepared myself that as soon as they saw me they turned around and started talking to each other again, leaving me sitting alone on the bench with a copy of "Pride and Prejudice" in my arms.

I came back home crying (on the first day of school) and although everyone tried to calm me down I couldn't stop crying. Suddenly Golden Bells didn't seem so wonderful to me anymore and I hated myself for even thinking such a thought about my lovely home. But I promised my parents and myself that I will try to come back to normal life here and so I came back to school the day after and was prepared for sitting alone and reading my book during breaks and it didn't seem so bad after a while. I prefer to read a book rather than to see somone talking with me reluctantly.

I write to my girls everyday, like I promised, and they write to me with the same consistency. Phillip writes to me too of course and he always helps me out in my troubles even through his funny way of writing. But even though it is not the same as seeing them all next to me, I know that it can't be and I just need to deal with it somehow. I miss all of them so much though, and I miss all of my other cousins too and aunties, uncles and of course Grandparents Blythe as well. I've grown accustomed to seeing them all every single day, even if it's just on the street or at the Sunday's family dinner.

I miss House of Dreams too. It's not that I don't love Golden Bells, oh I _do_ love it, it's the house I was raised in after all, but right now it seems to me that it doesn't exactly play the role of "the home" anymore, more like a hiding place from school and fears and doubts and loneliness.

Gilly is alright at school, he isn't as happy as he would be if Marshall would be here and laughing with him but he's much better than me or Selwyn. As soon as the first day of school started Selwyn has been in a complete state of dreaminess. All he wants to do now is to go out to the garden to his old spot underneath the apple tree and read and write there while listening to wind blowing. If he could he wouldn't be talking to anyone at all. Mum and Dad are very worried about him but he constantly tells them he's fine and as soon as he says that he goes up to his room and starts writing a letter to either Walt or John or both at once even.

We all (Selwyn, Gil and I that is) miss our friends from Glen and I think it is quite unbearable for all of us to get used to the idea that we won't see them the next day.

The only thing, apart from my brothers, Golden Bells and my parents that keeps me hopeful and at least a little jolly is my cello, my violin and my piano. My teacher, Mr Franco, who used to teach me to play all of those instruments since I was five, is teaching me again and I couldn't be merrier about that. My head is so full of music sometimes I often fear it might explode! But I think that that kind of feeling is the best kind of feeling an apsiring musician like me can ever get. It's beautiful. See, even by just writing about music, I can smile again even if just for a _second_.

Enough, Hester, _enough of this_! This sadness has to be gone, and I _will_ find a way to deal with it somehow.

To escape those gloomy thoughts I shall write here the news my Mum got in a past week, day after day. "Little" Jims wrote to her and announced that he officially has a sweetheart of his own under the name of Joan who is a lawyer too, like him. Mum chuckled when she read out his letter to us and said that she can't quite believe in anything he wrote in there as she still pictures him as a small infant she carried in a soup tureen! Then it was the letter from Auntie Gertrude from Florida, announcing that she, her husband and their children will visit the Island next summer and I couldn't be more interested to meet them all again as it has been four years since we saw each other the last time… How quickly this time flies!

Although there are times when time couldn't be slower…

I _do_ have to stop.

I will go and practise some of my new cello notes then to occupy my thoughts with music rather than anything else.

Until next time,

Yours,

Hester

* * *

"Hes!" Gilly whispered through the closed door of Hester's room one November afternoon.

Hester raised her head from the English homework she was finishing and wonderingly raised her eyebrows "Come in, Gilly." she said with a soft grin on her lips as the door of her bedroom opened up and both of her brothers came into the room together, slowly closing it behind them as if they were about to tell their sister a secret which nobody in the house is supposed to hear apart from her, or so it seemed.

"Is something wrong?" she asked them worriedly.

"No, no…" Gil said finally "But both Wyn and I were talking and we decided that we should ask mum and dad to go back to P.E.I..." he looked at Hester expectantly.

She opened her eyes wider in surprise. Hester stood up and walked towards them both "Don't you think that maybe they should decide about a thing like that without us interfering?" she asked them uncertainly.

"But Hester," Selwyn said suddenly, with a serious expression upon his face "-our parents won't decide on anything unless they will know what it is they should decide on."

Gil raised his eyebrow in agreement with his younger brother and looked at Hester again "So?" he said "Do you want to ask them with us or not?"

Hester bit her lower lip for a second. She didn't want her parents to feel pressured as much as she felt in that moment but then she realised that sooner or later both she and her siblings would ask them about that subject anyway and so she nodded slowly "Yes I do want to." she replied decidedly and let them take her by her hands and go together downstairs into the kitchen where both of their parents were sitting and talking over something they both read in the newspaper which Ken was holding in his hands.

Both Mr and Mrs Ford looked up at their children, as soon as they appeared in the room, and knew what they were going to ask them that fearful question which was inevitable and would provoke lots of thinking for both Rilla and Ken. However both of them smiled at their children and waited to hear the question from their own mouths.

"Mum, dad." Gilly said officially "We have a serious question to ask you." he hurrumphed and looked assuringly at his younger brother and sister who nodded along and so he continued "You see, well, you know yourself that we're not particularly happy here at school, especially Wyn and Hes." he put his arms around Selwyn's and Hester's shoulders and smiled at them kindly "So what we would like to ask you is… um… Is there any possiblity that we could go back to Prince Edward Island?" he asked finally, sighing a sigh of relief over the fact that he said it all outloud eventually.

Ken looked at Rilla and she looked at him. It could be seen very plainly that even though they expected this question to appear sooner or later, they were quite surprised that it did, probably because neither quite knew how to answer it. They looked at their three children standing so hopefully in front of them, their eyes speaking for themselves and their hands fiddling nervously in such way that Rilla's eyes got misty and Ken's lips started to twist.

"I'm glad you came to us and told us this, kids." Ken said finally "I feel very bad for putting you all through all kinds of different situations back here at school…"

"No, daddy, don't." Hester said suddenly and took his hand in her own caringly "You _didn't_ put us through anything, it's not anyone's fault."

Ken squeezed his only daughter's hand and smiled at her with fatherly pride in his eyes "Hester, darling, you're right that it's not anyone's fault, but after all we _are_ your parents and we're responsible in some ways, for your happiness." he said "So I need you all to tell your mother and I again, do you want us all to go back to P.E.I. and live there for _good_?" he asked them, Rilla's hand finding its way to his own.

"I do." Gilly said.

"I do too." Selwyn added, with a soft grin falling down onto his lips.

"I do as well." Hester said almost breathlessly, all emotions shaking her little body from head to toe.

Rilla took Hester by her hand and sat her on her lap as she noticed how her girl struggled with the whole situation "We will have to think about it first, darlings." she said to all of them, while putting a strand of Hester's hair behind her ear.

"We want you to be the happiest kids alive." Ken added "But you must remember that I have a very good job here so your mother and I have to discuss all prons and cons first of all before we will decide everything." he said and then stood up to embrace both of his sons "But I promise you that we will definitely do everything to make you all very happy." he smiled assuringly at Gilly, Selwyn and Hester who was still sitting on her mother's lap.

And somehow, although each of the Ford siblings had doubt about coming back to the Island in their eyes, some small triggering grain of hope was planted in their hearts and even though it was just a small grain, it made almost all of their doubts to disappear.


	18. The Beginning Of Something Different

_**Chapter XVIII**_

"Hester! Hester! You're _here_!" Lily shouted out as soon as Hester found herself being sqeezed to the loss of her breath by that crazy red-headed cousin of hers.

It was December already and with that month of certain winter came the time for certain Christmas, this time being held at Ingleside. Hester came back from Toronto with her parents and siblings for the winter holidays and during this time they stayed at the peaceful House of Dreams in Four Winds, enjoying every second of their stay.

Rilla and Ken made a promise to their children that they will tell them their decision regarding going back to the Island for good before New Year's Eve and their children of course didn't ask them anymore on the subject before that time. And because this special date was coming closer and closer, Christmas was surrounding their family in the form of the heavy and deep snow lying all over the ground which in the summer is red, Hester could _not_ be any happier than she was in that moment also because she was being hugged by Lily, Marion and of course Vance too for the first time in months.

"Oh, I couldn't be more thrilled to be here with all of you again!" Hester exclaimed as she kissed Vance's flushed cheek "I think this Christmas will be the most beautiful in all aspects possible."

"It has to be, Hester." Lily said decidedly as she was putting on her hat and gloves " _I_ will make sure of that." she giggled again and took both Hester and her sister Marion by their hands "Let's go and play in the snow!" and soon all four bosom friends were indeed blissfully enjoying each other's company as well as the company of the snow all around them.

This Christmas was as wonderful as the word 'wonderful' sounds itself because for the first time in years the whole and entire family of Hester's was present and ready for Christmas of the year 1937. Along with Hester, Selwyn, Gil, Rilla and Ken came Ken's parents, Leslie and Owen, and nobody couldn't be any merrier to see the old friends in the form of Owen, Leslie, Gilbert and Anne to be reunited again. It seemed as if Leslie started talking to Anne even before they said a word to each other and that Owen could _not_ smile wider when he saw his old friend Gilbert putting his hand forward to shake his own.

As miracles happen, Persis along with her husband Carl and their children came all the way from England too. Hester had the pleasure to get more acquainted with the thirteen year old Tom, an image and personality of his father although with a twinkle in his eyes reminding everyone of his mother, and Tom's ten year old sister Dawn who coincidentally was an image of her mother in both appearance and her personality. Hester loved them both dearly since the moment she saw them.

To make the family reunion quite complete Bruce and his soon-to-be wife Louise came for their last Christmas together as just "to-be-married" because next Christmas they would both be referred to as Mr and Mrs Meredith. It was quite amazing to see their "cousin" Bruce, as they always referred to him 'cousin' because Bruce never seemed old enough to any of the newest generations of Merediths, Blythes or even Fords to be referred to as an uncle, to be so adult-like with his sweet bride-to-be on his shoulder. But it was entirely lovely to see them both again.

But grandma Anne was a bit downhearted that the reunion couldn't be as complete as she thought it could be. Diana and her husband Fred, along with their children of course, were spending their Christmas with Fred's family in Avonlea and so couldn't come to the old Glen for Christmas in 1937. Also Davy Keith first thought that it would be possible for him and his family to come all the way from Ottawa but remembered that he had to finish off some of his projects in his office and so couldn't come too. His sister Dora and her family couldn't come too as they were all living in Minneapolis and could only afford to come to the Island once in five years and they visited Anne only two years earlier.

Even though those guests, dear friends and relatives of Anne couldn't make it for Christmas that year her eyes and her entire face glowed like diamonds of joy when she looked at her huge and beautiful at that family gathered all around her at the Christmas table, chattering and laughing together.

Hester giggled merrily as she and her "Group" watched how all her boy-cousins started to set up the tables for their family. There were _six_ whole tables prepared and the first one was put right below the window in the dining room and the last one was put directly in the middle of the hallway. Miraculously it all worked out and everyone could hear one another, respond to one another and laugh with one another throughout the whole evening.

Hester was a picture of joy and hope while she was eating her Christmas dinner with her family and friends. It was simply miraculous to see her so happy, Rilla and Ken thought when they were observing their daughter from across the table as she laughed over a joke Lily told her, Marion and Vance. But not only Hester's face brightened up on that day, her siblings' did faces as well.

It was as if a strange, invisible to the naked eye, light ray fell on their faces and suddenly turned to a very visible and bright one at that too. When both Ken and Rilla noticed this light upon their children's faces, they turned their heads to face one another and smiled knowingly, both having tears of happiness in their eyes.

"Can I announce something everyone?" Ken suddenly arose from his chair and looked around all the people sitting at the six tables who stopped chattering and looked at him with interest in their eyes "You all know that Rilla and I started to think about whether or not we all should come back to live on the Island for good." he started and his eyes fell upon his three children, each sitting in different parts of the room but their eyes reflecting the same state of impatient and hopeful waiting "Well, we've made a decision about that." he put a hand on Rilla's shoulder and she patted it as a reassuring gesture which said "Go on, tell them."

Hester felt Vance's and Marion's hands in her own and she could almost sense Lily's gaze being focused on her face. Hester looked to her left at Gilly who was sitting next to Marshall and Jo with his eyes sparkling and winking at Hester assuringly, and then she looked at Selwyn to her right who was sitting next to John and Walt of course with his hands pushing against each other nervously and his kind eyes smiling gently into Hester's own. She smiled too when she looked back at her father and mother with her own eyes twinkling with such amount of hope it was almost impossible to look into them and not grin.

"I got a placement at my newspaper's department located in Charlottetown and I will be a main manager there just like I was in Toronto," Ken said finally, his feet stumping excitedly as if they were dancing already "-and so we _are_ officially moving back to the House of Dreams in the summer!" he said and his voice was a mixture of a happy laughter.

Rilla squeaked, Gilly jumped up and kissed both of his mother and father, Selwyn hugged both Walt and John and then ran up to Ken and Rilla and got a kiss from both of them and their entire family started to cheer.

Hester was shocked, shocked to her bones even though she knew that that would be the decision. Her face flushed with bright red and her eyes filled with fresh tears. She got at least a thousand of kisses from each of her girls sitting next to her before they allowed her to go up to her parents on her shaky legs.

She couldn't believe it. She would be _happy_ again. She would be able to meet up with her friends _every single day_ again! Hester fell into her mother's and father's arms and kissed both of their cheeks with her own cheeks becoming wet "Oh, we are _really_ going to live in the House of Dreams? Really?" she gasped and looked at both Rilla and Ken who smiled at each other first and then at her.

"Yes, sweetheart we _are_ going back." Rilla said, her own voice swimming in joy "Are you happy?" she asked although she knew she didn't have to.

"Happy?" Hester said "I couldn't imagine a better Christmas present!" she exclaimed and put her arms around both of her parents again who laughed together merrily "But dad, how are you going to get to work everyday then?" Hester asked suddenly, her worrying personality taking over her for a moment.

Ken put a hand on her shoulder gently and grinned at her "The newspaper said that they will pay for my trips from here to Charlottetown and I'm more than happy to spend two hours on the train if it means that all of my family will be happy." he smiled kindly at his daughter.

"But what about Golden Bells?" Hester asked, her voice trembling.

"Well…" suddenly Owen Ford stood at the side of Hester's and put his arm around his granddaughter "You see, dear, your parents, me and your grandma Leslie talked about this for the whole month and we decided that we will be the next residents of Golden Bells." he smiled happily at Hester who sighed a sigh of relief and put her head on her grandfather's shoulder.

"Besides, we were going to sell our old house anyway." Leslier joined in cheerfully "It's definitely too big for us now anyway and we couldn't feel more at home than at Golden Bells." she kissed Hester's cheek gently.

"It's so exciting!" Gilly appeared unexpectadly with his arm around Selwyn's shoulder, two wide smiles on both of their faces "It's like a beginning of something completely different!" everyone around him laughed.

"Thank you, mum and dad." Selwyn added with a pure thankfulness in his eyes making his parents to smile at him with pride and merriness.

"You're so very welcome, darling." Rilla said with a sweet grin on her face "I must say I'm very excited too. Imagine how many more cooking tips can you now teach me, Una?" she walked over to Una's side and kissed her cheek who smiled knowingly at her.

Everyone in the room chuckled again and it seemed as if the atmosphere of Christmas couldn't get fuller of joy.

Everyone sat down in their seats again and Christmas continued, more wonderfully than anyone thought it would. Hester knew that she would never forget that day, that it meant like Gilly said "a beggining of something new and different" even though it didn't seem like different at all but simply "the same" as it was just a few months earlier when they all lived in Four Winds. She knew that this change was bigger than probably most of the changes she went through during her life, she knew that after all she wouldn't be Hester of Golden Bells anymore and she felt excited and a _tiny_ bit scared _but_ hopeful and also interested in what the future will bring to her and her family.

But although Hester felt something big and inevitable was coming slowly but decidedly towards them all, she smiled through this tiny feeling of fear and she put on her hat and gloves and ran out of the ancient Ingleside with Lily, Vance and Marion right into the Rainbow Valley laughing along with them because she knew that after all, she would always have someone she loved and who loved her by her side whatever her life would bring to her. And _this_ certainly is the most trustworthy kind of reassurance, isn't it?

 ** _To Be Continued..._**

 **Yes, this was the last chapter of "Hester of Golden Bells" but it also was just the beginning of the whole story about Hester and her family :)**

 ** _Thank you all_ for reading this story and all of my other stories as well, I can't express enough how much all of the reviews, favouritings and followings mean to me. I just love knowing that you enjoy what I write because after all as much as I write for myself, I write for you too, my dear readers.**

 **Special thanks must go to Alinyaalethia, Kim Blythe, Lasting Violet, Andrea1984, AvonleaBlythe and all the Guests who left their reviews too! :) I loved reading your reviews, they always bring a huge smile to my face.**

 **I am of course going to write a sequel to this story and I can guarantee you that it will be much, _much_ longer (exciting!) and much, _much_ more interesting as well. This next story will be about Hester and her family during the time of World War II and I will post the first chapter of it on the very first Sunday of July so keep your eyes open! **

**Here's the family tree because I know that it will be useful for all of you while reading the sequel:**

 **James "** ** _Jem_** **" Blythe + Faith Meredith (Married in 1921) = House on the Hill, Glen**

Walter " _Walt_ " John Blythe (b. 1922)

Cecilia " _Lily_ " Una Blythe (b. 1923)

Anne " _Marion_ " Rosemary Blythe (b. 1924)

 **Anne "** ** _Nan_** **" Blythe + Gerald "** ** _Jerry_** **" Meredith (Married in 1920) = Honey Cottage, Glen**

Josephine " _Jo_ " Diana Meredith (b. 1920)

John Noah Meredith (b. 1922)

 **Diana "** ** _Di_** **" Blythe + Jack Wright (Married in 1923) = Green Gables, Avonlea**

Ada Anne Wright (b. 1924)

David Jack Wright (b. 1925)

 **Shirley Blythe + Emma McMillan (Married in 1925) = Farm House, Four Winds**

Matthew " _Will_ " William Blythe (b. 1926)

Susan Anna Blythe (b. 1929)

Cordelia " _Delia_ " Amelia Blythe (b. 1934)

 **Bertha "** ** _Rilla_** **" Blythe + Kenneth "** ** _Ken_** **" Ford (Married in 1919) = House of Dreams, Four Winds**

Gilbert " _Gilly_ " Blythe Ford (b. 1920)

Selwyn Owen Ford (b. 1922)

Hester Leslie Ford (b. 1924)

 **Thomas "** ** _Carl_** **" Meredith + Persis Ford (Married in 1923) = Gillingham, England**

Thomas " _Tom_ " John Meredith (b. 1924)

Dawn Leslie Meredith (b. 1927)

 **Bruce Meredith + Louise Jones (Married in 1938) = Kingsport**

Violet Meredith + Rose Meredith (b. 1939)

 **Mary Vance + Miller Douglas (Married in 1919) = Garden House, Four Winds**

Marshall Douglas (b. 1920)

Cornelia Douglas (b.1922)

Vance Douglas (b. 1924)


End file.
